Rising to the challenge of leading sustainable QI
By Dr Kim Nurse
FMLM Trainee Steering Group Representative for London and social media lead
Earlier this week, FMLM’s Trainee Steering Group (TSG) launched the first event in a series of complimentary evening webinars aimed at trainees as part of their ‘Introduction to Leadership Development’ programme. The programme kicked-off with Rising to the Challenge of Sustainable QI hosted by East of England and Midlands representative, Dr Tanvir Hossain, which was a sell-out.
Two Midlands-based speakers, from medicine and from industry, delivered their insights and advice on how to make quality improvement successful, and most importantly, sustainable.
Dr Aklak Choudhury, Director of Quality Improvement and Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust delivered an inspiring talk focused on how trusts can do better to support junior doctors by encouraging continuity of projects aligned with the trust’s priorities. He offered tips on how trainees can tackle initial barriers and ensure their projects are both sustainable and impactful. Dr Choudhury’s take-away points include:
“Collect data continuously and combine it with powerful patient stories, gets people’s hearts and minds on board and contributes to sustainability.”
And,
“Seek out people with high interest and high power.”
Ahmed Hossain, Head of Quality Improvement and Engineering at Rolls-Royce delivered an insightful talk which looked at lessons from the manufacturing industry and how these can be applied to the NHS, with a particular emphasis on changing culture and ensuring treatment of the cause, not the symptoms.
Highlights from Ahmed include:
“Every problem should be seen as a learning opportunity to make things better, so we ensure we never have the same problem again.”
“Put the customer first, whoever that may be, that’s our priority.”
And,
“Unless the culture is primed, you’re going to struggle to land anything.”
Trainees left feeling inspired and full of ideas to take forward to their own projects and placements. The TSG look forward to hearing – and seeing – the positive impact of these insights on sustainable QI on patients, staff and services in the future.
This was the first in the TSG’s series of webinar events aimed at engaging and inspiring trainees’ leadership. The next event takes place in July/August and will be advertised shortly.