Birmingham Children’s Hospital Paired Learning scheme
Birmingham Children’s Hospital has launched a new Paired Learning scheme to break down barriers between junior doctors and managers and challenge stereotypes to drive improvements in clinical leadership.
Historically in the NHS, hospital doctors and managers have struggled to find ways to work effectively together due to a lack of understanding of each other’s roles. In today’s health service, good team working has never been more important - as Dr Mark Porter from the BMA states, “We can no longer afford to have two tribes, because two tribes bring half the benefit to patients”.
Graduate trainee Lydia Salice found that at a junior doctor induction day, half had never met a manager before, including Dr Nicki Kelly who had no understanding of what managers did and little conviction of their impact on patient care. In a bid to improve the way that doctors and managers work together, Lydia and Nicki developed the Paired Learning scheme to change perceptions through earlier engagement.
Paired Learning brings together a trainee doctor and manager to give an insight into each other’s roles and perspectives, through open dialogue, shadowing and by sharing the key challenges both groups face. Monthly workshops are also held to discuss a range of issues, such as leadership styles and managing change.
Thirty pairs of doctors and managers are now working together and reaping the rewards. Dr Kelly, for example, has learnt that managers have a very important and challenging job, and are in fact very concerned with the business of providing excellent patient care. An Associate Service Director shadowed a doctor on a night shift on the paediatric intensive care unit and saw first-hand some of the difficulties caused by flow issues. Thanks to this deeper understanding he was able to better articulate a case for the expansion of long term ventilation capacity at the Trust. Another pair found that due to the transient nature of their training, doctors can sometimes feel undervalued. As a result, the pair now have a shared goal of ensuring that doctors in training are represented at all decision making forums in the Trust.
Project Manager Lydia Salice said: “Neither doctors nor managers can work in isolation; they both need each other. We see the other group as the problem solvers rather than a problem to tackle. If we can see the best in each other's role and work together then we have a real chance in meeting the challenges that face all of us in delivering excellent health care.”
Find out more about the scheme by watching this short video.
BCH Paired Learning Team:
- Dr Isobel Brookes, Respiratory Consultant @IsobelMB
- Lydia Salice, Management Trainee @LydiaBenedetta
- Alex Borg, Associate Service Director @AlexanderDBorg
- Dr Nicki Kelly, PICU Registrar @nickik_
- Dr Jeremy Tong, PICU Registrar @jez_tong