There has been remarkable progress and innovation in the 70-year journey of the NHS. We know that further progress and innovation are needed more than ever with the fast-changing pace of the needs of those we serve. I believe that we now need innovation for our NHS to become a system of recovery and prevention that is part of our communities, rather than a separate system that only prioritises treating ill health.
Everyone in the NHS workforce plays a pivotal role in making this a reality and nurses have a variety of skills and attributes to make this happen. I am not sure that we always make the most of these skills and attributes. We can't deliver what we want to without all the parts of the massive machinery that is the NHS workforce working together. Nursing colleagues bring the technical expertise and knowledge but, importantly for me, they set and embed values and behaviours such as dignity, kindness and compassion. This is a really important part of what I believe nursing must do to influence behaviour change.
As the CEO of a trust that works in the inner city of London and also in rural areas of Bedfordshire, being in touch with the communities we serve impacts the way we perceive and deliver care. It is important to me to have regular and genuine contact with my colleagues, either face to face with junior staff, through walkabouts in different services, by social media or online through comments on the monthly vlog I record. Twitter and the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) blog, where I express my thoughts on matters that influence my growth, are also valuable platforms for comment and feedback. I value this to test my ideas, pick people's brains, hear their ideas, find out what the obstacles and frustrations are and work to address or at least understand them.
Listening carefully to the staff, service users and carers who use our services is crucial. I believe that solutions to many of our problems reside in these voices, of those who are closest to the point of care. Where does innovation come from? From people telling us what they want, what would work better and what isn't working.
Our Quality Improvement (QI) Programme is one of the best examples of how we engage with staff and service users to identify what needs to change and test it. And nurses are well placed to know what is needed. The QI programme gives us permission to be curious, to look at alternative approaches and to think outside the box. People own it, so change is not imposed on them—it is coming from them. In fact, I don't just want staff to just think outside the box, I want them to jump up and down on it, crush it and kick it out of the way!
We've done really well in delivering care up until now but I want to keep up with people's needs, what they want and how they want to live their lives. Populations are changing the way they live, so we need to change the way we work.
I recently attended a conference regarding innovation where Professor Linda Aiken talked about the experience in the USA of overcoming nursing shortages by focusing on creating a healthy culture, with opportunity for development and giving nurses more autonomy.
Despite the differences between the UK and the US systems, they found local solutions, nearly solving their nursing recruitment and retention issue. The most successful organisations encourage innovation and different ways of working; they endeavour to deliver within certain constraints that encourage creative thinking.
One of the things that I try to do more of is getting people to understand the assets of their local communities and how we can work in partnership with those assets to improve the quality of life for people. This means everyone including the ageing population who can be a great resource in supporting progress.
It's ELFT's mission ‘To improve quality of life for all we serve’. Whether it spans inner city or rural areas, the strategy is the same: improving the quality of life of the people and the communities we serve.
So my question to colleagues is: ‘Do you know best, what we can do right now with the resources we've got?’
I would like to support my nursing colleagues to be bold and innovative by working with other sectors, such as the voluntary sector and social care. I believe that there is a lot of power in our local staff who know our communities really well. They can design and create the new system, which will be perfectly designed to get even better results.