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SoWhoCaresAnyWay E22 Given wings to create ripple effects · SoWhoCaresAnyway

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Hello and welcome to So Who Cares Anyway, the podcast that shares learning, innovation and ideas from the world of health and social care and beyond.
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My name is Ruth Germain and I'm inviting you to join me each week with my inspirational guests to hear about who cares.
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What they do, their passions, their knowledge and ideas, and importantly, the difference they are making to improve the health and wellbeing of people in our communities.
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I consider each of my guests to be incredible individuals working with people in new ways or with key messages to share.
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People from healthcare, social care, the voluntary sector, community groups, and more.
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To join me each week to find out, so who cares.
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Anyway, to find out more about me, who I am and what I do, please head over to my website, www.reflectiveruthconsultancy.com,
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where you can also catch up with previous episodes and read my blogs.
Hello and welcome to the next episode of So Who Cares.
Anyway, and today I am really delighted to be joined by Cheryl Young, who is an advanced clinical practitioner, a nurse by background, and a professional nurse advocate, which is one of the things that Cheryl's really passionate about and wanted to come on to talk to us about today.
But first of all, Cheryl, I'm just gonna pass over to you and ask you if you'd introduce yourself a bit further please.
Thank you, Ruth.
I'm Cheryl and I didn't come into nursing until I was 30, so I joined nursing a a bit later.
So I came with a sort of tool bag of world knowledge, I think, which has stood me in good stead through my nursing career, starting in community hospital and then working in acute medicine, a environments, and eventually ending up at WIT medical practice.
And it is at Westwell Medical Practice where you work in the urgent treatment center there, is that right? Yeah, so I work in the urgent treatment center.
I started there as a morning injuries nurse, and then as the practice developed into an urgent treatment center, worked towards becoming an emergency nurse practitioner and then an A CP.
And then in 2022, I gained my qualification as a professional nurse Africa.
That qualification came on the back of COVID, really.
So there was a real push and drive to recruit professional nurse advocates due to the overwhelming demand on staff.
And it was recognized that their wellbeing actually was being affected by what we were going through.
It was something that was developed originally in the maternity services and the chief nurse decided to.
Take the reins and spread that out across all nursing areas so that the vision was that everywhere would have a professional nurse advocate to help support staff wellbeing and in within the urgent treatment center.
We were really lucky that it was something that was adopted really early on, and the managers, they really got it and understood the benefit of an nerdy buy-in.
For a professional nurse advocate.
So until very recently, there was two of us within the urgent treatment center and currently there's just me.
Thank you.
And I'm just gonna take you back a second and it's just really for listeners that might not understand, you talked a bit about how you were a, did you say minor injuries or minor illness Nurse.
Minor.
Minor injuries.
Yeah, minor injuries.
And then you were emergency nurse practitioner and advanced practitioner.
For anybody listening who doesn't understand that, can you just give us a little bit of an idea of, of what that difference is in the progression and why it needs, why you, or why you decided to go along that trajectory? What, what difference did that make? So when I first started, the urgent treatment center was minor injuries unit and in the NHS five year forward plan.
Their vision was to upgrade these units to urgent treatment centers.
So through my nursing development, I started as a minor injuries nurse, realized that I needed to do some additional training, so trained to become an emergency nurse practitioner, which gave me additional skills and knowledge for examining and assessing patients.
Then as we developed into an urgent treatment center, actually the need to be an advanced clinical practitioner became greater.
So really consolidating that examination and consultation, learning about prescribing and how to prescribe, the ability to gain that qualification to prescribe, and all of the law and ethics and things behind that.
So yeah, that's kind of been the development that I've gone through.
I've worked there for nine years, so it hasn't all happened all of a sudden.
It's been gradual progression through that period of time.
Thank you.
So I suppose really.
The emergency nurse practitioner is really focused on doing the presentation, whereas the clinic, the advanced clinical practitioner, is understanding everything behind that presentation and understanding as well that bit around, so not just the clinical, so you've described that quite well, but that sort of leadership, education and research.
So thinking about things in a far broader context, which of course when you move from being a minor injury where somebody's presenting with an injury to.
Be somewhere, something where somebody can present with whatever undifferentiated, undiagnosed condition.
Actually having that wide ability and skills was, was far more obviously needed is I think probably a good of saying it.
That critical.
Yeah, that critical mindset.
Being able to unpick that history and the story that the patient is telling you, try and put the pieces back together to understand what is going on, what is causing the problem for them.
So, yeah, we really do get anything.
So anything that is urgent to the patient, you know, there's, there's no one day that is the same, but we are really fortunate to be able to run a Ssec pathway, which is same day emergency care pathway.
So we do get some quite acute presentations such as acquired pneumonia.
Deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and cellulitis, things that would require IV antibiotics and are traditionally seen as jobs that would be done in a hospital setting.
We are taking some of that pressure away from hospital setting and delivering it in a community environment.
Okay.
Yeah, because what we haven't said here is that Wbul medical practice actually has a general practice part to it.
Which people understand and know, but also an urgent treatment center, which is Yeah, completely quite different from your accident emergency in that it is based in the community.
Thank you.
Yeah, I think that's quite helpful to just establish.
So I want to go back now to the p and a bit because that was why you were on today and I, I really felt for them some of the things that you were telling me about.
And Cheryl, we've known each other quite a long time and we met again at a conference recently and you were talking to me about coming on the podcast and talking about this, and your passion really came through.
For me, it really linked with a couple of the previous episodes that I've done, so I don't know if you've listened to those, but Dr.
Rebecca Myers was talking about the, the emotional labor and the emotional toll of work, which I think you've just described just now.
And I've had somebody else on who was talking about I've, do you know names have just gone, oh yeah.
Grace Cook was on recently from the Foundation of Nursing Studies and she was talking about clinical supervision.
But I think what the professional nurse advocate role really does is about.
Having people there to really make sure that this is embedded in practice.
Am I right in saying that? Yeah, absolutely.
So back in, in 2020, obviously we were snowballing through COVID and it got it probably got to sort of right the August time where the government had decided that everybody could go back out and support local businesses and they were doing some offers, weren't they? Life.
Buy one, get one free in restaurants and things like that to help support trade.
And it was really confusing to staff and it was quite distressing to think that actually we'd been living this really strict life.
You know, we had staff living apart from their families because of the risk of passing on COVID.
It was really, really difficult for staff to understand how we could go like a whole 360 really to then.
After the summer period all back into lockdown again, and it was really taking an emotional toll on staff, the chewing and throwing of the government decisions and what we were seeing in the workplace.
So, as you said, we are not in a hospital environment, but we were doing something called virtual COVID wards, where we would be monitoring at risk patients on the, on the telephone and liaising with them.
It was really hard and difficult work and obviously patients still needed care and we were still providing that care, but the staff obviously were feeling quite isolated.
We were kind of square pegs that didn't fit anywhere.
We didn't fit in that round hole.
We weren't in a hospital setting if it was really difficult.
So myself and my colleague Alex, we decided to start some, just some wellbeing practices.
And it went down really, really well.
And literally a few months later, we learned of the professional Nurse Advocate program being rolled out, and I studied with St.
George's, um, Kings, they collaborated and I studied with them master level qualification and qualified in the French 22.
So it was.
An online program, it gave you the tools to help deliver restorative supervision, which is something that we run monthly now.
But in addition to that, at the urgent treatment center, because it's shift work, we probably deliver our practices really quite differently from anywhere else.
So we deliver restorative, we actually call them restorative conversations.
So that was one of the first things that we recognized, but nobody knew what restorative clinical supervision was.
It was like, what? What are you talking about? It didn't matter how many times I did a presentation on it.
Everybody was like, I don't understand.
So it was like, okay, let's rephrase this.
What is it? It's actually a restorative conversation.
Gonna have a conversation that can help you get through your workday, can help you with some career planning, some appraisal planning.
All of those things that come into your workday, some debriefing from difficult patients, all of those, all of those things that help make your workday easier.
So we introduced those alongside wellbeing days.
So we offered, or we do offer the opportunity for staff to kind of have time with us as the sort of wellbeing and p and a team.
And we arrange walks.
So our most recent walk was a walk in the blue bells.
Oh, love.
So we arrange walks, we arrange like evenings out so people can join us in that.
More social setting, bike rides, rounders, sea swimming.
We do, we really take advantage of where we are situated on the Kent Coast and really try and get out in the world and get everyone participating.
I.
That way.
So what we take from that is that sitting down having a restorative conversation isn't for everybody.
But actually a walk in the blue bells and a chat about what's been going on is actually equally as valuable, if not more valuable.
Yeah, because we get on the sunlight, you know, we are really taking in our surroundings and kind of de-stressing while we're having that conversation.
So, yeah, it's a real, it's a real source of personal passion for me.
I absolutely love it.
One of the other things we do is every month we have a wellbeing board, which is themes in our staff room.
So it's just changing for July, and it's gonna be mini rituals.
So mini rituals to improve your workday.
Things like hydration, taking a stretch at your desk.
Remembering to set a timer for your email box.
Set a timer for five minutes and try and clear as much as you can, and then that you're not gonna get it cleared, but it's progress and you don't need to give yourself a hard time 'cause you spent five minutes doing it, you know, getting up and making sure you've opened the blinds so you get a bit of sunlight on your face, or getting out in your break time and getting some sunlight on your face.
Just, these are really simple hacks, but they are, people need to be reminded and, and remember to do it.
So one of the other things we did, we had a real dead space that I found sort of upstairs and outside.
It was a balcony that just wasn't used.
It's got some outside air conditioning maintenance units on it and went to our partners and said, and I have that space and they let me have it.
And now we've got benches and seating and flowers.
So that now we have an area that staff, especially at this time of year, can go and sit outside and have their break, their meal break outside in the fresh air and there's some prettiness to look at.
So they're just some of the few things that I do as a p and a with within our team.
Wow.
I mean that's, that's so much going from having your started wellbeing practices that bit to doing your PNA course to doing things that are actually really common sense in some ways.
Like I said, going for a walk in the blue bells and it just brought me straight back.
So you probably saw us flicking through my book through Remind myself, but I spoke with James Metcalf, who is from the North York Moores Trust.
And he was talking about taking people out for walks.
So he's actually from the moss, not in healthcare.
He takes people out on wellbeing walks.
But actually what you are doing, we, we think about doing that for the people in our communities or social prescribing, those type of things.
But you're talking about doing that with staff, you know, bike crisis.
It sounds incredible.
So one thing I just wanna ask with those things, are they things that are happening.
In in work time or these things that you know, it's expected that you do work and then perhaps do these things afterwards.
And so restorative conversations are anybody that's on duty and if there's an opportunity for them to come across, because I always book a room out if there's an opportunity for them to come across and join the conversation.
Whoever's in charge that day is aware that the session's on and people need to or can ask to request to come either.
Also they can book a one-to-one and that can be arranged within their, in their workday if needed.
Obviously the going out for walks and, and things like that is in your own time.
But the feedback has been that actually there's such a benefit to it that people will, will do it and do take part.
And you know what I learned really early on is that one size doesn't fit all.
And that's why we have lots of different activities.
So like the rounders is a real family event.
We have people bring their children, we bring snacks and drinks and things and you know, we all get together, play around blankets on the ground, you know, literally jumpers for your goalposts and stuff.
It is amazing.
It's a lovely, lovely afternoon.
And people just really embrace it and, and join in.
The same with the swimming, that's a family thing.
We do lots of dog walks because, you know, people love their pets.
And so, you know, if you've got a, if you've got a dog, you're generally walking your dog a day.
So actually every day.
So joining a dog walk with your work colleagues, it's actually quite nice.
Yes.
You know, and arranging a dog will wear, we might be able to get a coffee at the end of it or whatever.
And so things like that.
So if you are reliant on staff, buy-in.
For sure because they do have to give up their time.
But we try to be really inclusive so that that is time well spent.
And actually if you've had that bit where you've got that open door policy and you've got that one-to-one as well that people can have, so you're really allowing people to access you in the way that works for them.
Yeah.
And then doing this additional, this sounds like some something where you are really making sure and that everybody feels included.
And one of the things about.
Any organization, it needs to be constantly learning, but you can only learn because learning social.
So you can only learn if you can socialize with people.
So by giving people the opportunity of the one-to-one, if they need it, then perhaps moving into, well, why not join us for round us? Or whatever the thing is, and having family there, then actually people feel, you know, there's that opportunity for everybody to feel included.
And I like the fact that you've done.
Lots of different things.
You know, so often the work do is meeting at a pub or going out for a meal, which is fine, but it can be exclusive depending on what people like doing, what they like eating and and cost.
Whereas turning up to play rounders, as long as the weather's fine, you haven't really got any costs in the evening.
If it is a little bit drizzly, it's just the right coat or whatever, you know? So a hundred percent, a hundred percent.
Yeah, we, we were really conscious early on Alex and I, when we were sort of developing this that we didn't want it to incur across the people as much as possible, and that's why we really, really embrace our local area.
It's just so beautiful on the sea front and we got kind of the sea front to the right and the woods to the, to the left.
We are very lucky where we live that we can use that environment to our.
To our benefit and get people out and involved.
And of course all of the evidence for being outside, being in the sunlight.
You are getting some exercise walk, you know, there's loads of information out there now about walking and talking how good it is for your mental health and things like that.
So it just is a real passion.
I just love it.
And I just love, even if it's only one person that shows up, that's one person that's gonna take something away from it.
And again, there's lots of information out there as about how teams function better when you know each other in a more social setting.
So when you know somebody at work that's not necessarily the same person that you would know outside of work.
So actually getting an understanding of them away from the work setting can also be a real improvement in communication at work because you kind of know how they tick a little bit more.
You kind of understand where they're coming from and their perspective.
So I think it really does add communication, which whenever you look back at things that might have gone wrong and unpick problems, often it is communication.
It comes down to, yes.
Yeah, exactly.
And you brought me really nicely there.
'cause I was gonna come on to, and I know we touched on this at the beginning, but.
Because obviously it was COVID that sort of drove you down this route and what you saw, but, and you've done some incredible things.
You know, I didn't think I would be talking to you about going out for walks with staff when you were doing this.
I was imagining something far more formal, which isn't wrong.
You know, listening to Grace Cook and that clinical supervision and what she talks about that isn't wrong.
Yeah.
There's some really good parts to that, but actually what you've done is you've extended it into.
So much more, which creates that real team and those team bonds.
So why, why do you think this is important? I mean, you've talked about communication there and about the team.
What else? Why, why does this need to happen and why do more people need to be doing it? I think it needs to happen to the starter, feel valued.
You know, there's a lot of talk about staff not feeling valued in healthcare settings.
You know, burnout, moral injury, all of these things.
Actually providing something like this, um, a person at all opportunities to feel valued is really important, as well as retention.
Retention of our staff.
We need to heap those skills.
You know, people often, I mean, even, like I said right at the beginning, I didn't join until I was 30.
I'm 53, so it's 23 years of experience that I've got.
We wanna keep those skills, we wanna keep those skills and knowledge, and obviously people move on and move around.
They relocate.
They find a passion in a different area of work.
But retaining and improving those skills and recruiting good staff is really important to the whole dynamic of a team setting and the service that you are delivering.
I did actually run a, a recruitment event a couple of years ago where we recruited, I think it was eight staff, it might been 11 staff.
We did recruit, we did a really big recruitment drive, but part of my p and a role, sort of a quality improvement project to recruit staff and basically from that project, what we've managed to do is grow our own.
So those staff came in from all myriad of different backgrounds.
Some were oncology nurses, some were pediatric nurses that might never have applied for a role within an urgent treatment center.
But what we've managed to do is embrace and develop their skills in-house training.
And now lots of them are on the a CP pathway training to become acps and growing and developing.
And so it really is about.
Nurturing those, developing nurses, paramedics, and also helping to maintain and retain the skills of the staff that have already got those skills and sharing that knowledge and passion that we have.
And I think p and a is actually a fundamental role to help support all of that.
Because you're kind of, yeah.
It's, it is a leadership role.
I think my leadership pillar in the advanced clinical practice is probably, you know, is up there with my, with my clinical, they're kind of run side to side and are equal in their sort of level pegging of the amount that I do for both of them.
And I think what happens when you have got a PNA in place and.
You are practicing what you preach.
That record drip effect into the team is second to none.
It becomes second nature and people don't even realize they're doing it, but they're doing it.
Over the years, my job has definitely got easier because people get it, they understand it, and it just is very much normalized in our area of practice.
We are just really lucky to be able to work in an environment that does support it.
Like I say, had that really early buy-in and understood that the professional nurse advocate role is really important and you've given me so much there to reflect on.
Cheryl, my brain's wearing round now, so I'm just gonna start and see if I can work through some of them.
So one of the things that you spoke about was about retention of staff and keeping skills and knowledge.
And I mean, that's fundamental and everybody will understand the skills and knowledge of being able to do a procedure or being able to do a clinical examination or whatever that is, so people will understand that knowledge.
But I think when we talk about knowledge, it's far more than that, isn't it? There's, there's a lot that you have that's that you know, but you can't always quite describe to be able to put it on a paper should you leave.
But actually you can show people.
A hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
And a bit, like I said to you right at the beginning, I didn't start until I was 30, so I already came with a toolbox of stuff.
I was, I'd worked in other environments.
I was a mum.
Yeah, I was a wife.
So I had, you know, I, I'd dealt with, you know, cut knees and head injuries and stuff like in my personal life.
And so I already came with a toolbox of some information.
And I think that is what happens through your nursing career.
You are exposed to so many different people, doctors, patients, conditions.
That's all in there.
It's all in there and it's all stored.
And every now and again, you pull it out.
You think, oh, I reme.
I, I had a patient that was really similar to this 20 years ago.
I've never seen it since, but here we are, they're sitting in front of me.
A similar, a similar situation.
And that stuff is invaluable.
That is invaluable, especially when you're working in a, a primary care setting.
As an advanced clinical practitioner, and so having those staff that are starting that journey and for them to be able to then come and speak to you because you've been there, you've got some of the information, and share that skills and knowledge.
Like you say, it's really difficult to articulate that, but it's there and that sharing of knowledge and development and progression.
For the newer, younger, or more junior staff coming in, in and developing is really important to have that older, more senior team behind them to support them and keep pushing them up because they're, they're gonna be there when I've gone.
And that's what we wanna do.
We wanna give them the tools, we wanna retain them equally.
The staff that have been living it and breathing it for the last 20 odd years, we wanna.
Maintain their wellbeing to make sure that they're not burnt out and that they're not feeling the pressure of, you know, day-to-day working life.
So anything that we can do just to improve our working day is beneficial.
Exactly, and as you say, that knowledge that you have from the previous presentation or even just the fact of the way somebody behaves, the things they do, that actually you can share that and people can't learn that in a formal learning environment.
That's not something you go off to university to do or a study day that is embedded learning, learning in the place and really, really understanding.
The other bit you talked about was about your recruitment event and you talked about, and I.
I know because I've worked with WPO Medical Practice yourself and Heidi for quite a long time in various ways that you are known for being very good at bringing new people in and helping and supporting them to develop and learn.
I.
But what I'm really interested in from what you were saying there, you were talking about the fact that you've had people and you, you're not just talking nurses, you're talking paramedics as well, I think, and maybe other allied health professionals.
I don't know, but I think it's many paramedics and nurses within the team that you have.
You can correct me in a minute if I'm wrong, but what I'm really interested in is the fact that you are getting a diversity of people into your urgent treatment center.
And when you say, oh, we.
Somebody, I think you said an oncology nurse.
The first thing people might think is, well, they've left the oncology department and what are they gonna be doing there? But actually they're still in the NHS and they're still working.
But what does that bring by having that diverse workforce? Does that bring anything new to your team or anything different to the people that you are caring for? A hundred percent.
So in this recruitment event.
What we went about it quite differently.
Well, I suggested that we went about it quite differently.
'cause what we wanted to do was peak the interest of people that weren't necessarily looking for a job.
And so we did a social media campaign to advertise for an an open recruitment open day event, come along, have a look round.
So that's kind of how it all started.
And then on the back of that.
On the back of people attending it was, it was really well attended, so we advertised it on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
They were three main platforms and oh no, we used Twitter or X, we used that as well.
And we invited everyone in to this recruitment open day where they were shown around the department.
They were shown a little video that we put together of what we do at S3 U.
And then they were given the opportunity to have sort of a mini interview, and on the back of the mini interview, we then offered a proper interview.
And so what that did was provide us with the diverse selection of people coming from different areas.
So it wasn't all of the people that worked in a and e, it was people that.
Were in oncology that were pediatric nurses that had worked on surgical wards or medical wards.
Things that traditionally we, that might not have applied to come to Rescue Review.
And what that diversity brings to the role is we work in an urgent treatment center.
We see people from naught to whatever age they get to.
So having a pediatric nurse is a win.
Yeah.
You know.
Those skills and knowledge are absolutely fundamental and brilliant for us to have to know that we have got some qualified pediatric nurses is amazing.
And then likewise with oncology, we see patients every single day that are having cancer treatment.
And to actually be able to ask a colleague and say, do you think this might be a side effect of the treatment they're undergoing at the moment or.
Do you know what I mean? Just to have that vastness of knowledge is so beneficial to the patients that we see, and for us for continual learning, it's the old A, you don't know what you don't know until you know that you don't know it.
Yeah, so, so you are getting more knowledge and the more understanding, but the people that you're caring for are getting far more as well.
So a hundred percent it makes a difference to them.
Yeah.
Um, and you talked then about that ripple effect, so that was the other bit I wanted to come to about how what you are doing is having ripples and the impact of that seems to be absolutely huge because what it means is that this is almost becoming business as normal.
This is the way we behave around here.
This is what we do, this is our culture.
It's really having a sort of a knock on effect.
Yeah, the referral effect.
Our team is, honestly, we so blessed.
They are an amazing team.
So when I was first doing my professional Nurse Africa training, had to do a project.
So my project was on gratitude journaling.
So what I got everyone to do was before they went to bed or when they woke up in the morning, write three things that they were grateful for.
And then when we were coming in the morning, that was the other thing we introduced, was a morning huddle.
So we started 15 minutes early.
We came in, we all got together 'cause we never used to do that.
We all got together and we would talk about what we were grateful for and that's how we would start our day.
Oh, wow.
And so we did that for six weeks and then I took some data from that and some feedback from everyone and turned it into my project.
So I have always been really thankful that the staff believed in me and believed in the project that I was doing because they, they did it.
They came in early for work.
They stood them and said what they were thankful for, because I think they got it.
They completely got it.
So on the back of that, that ripple effect started really quickly with a huddle.
So we have a huddle every morning now, which we never used to have.
During that huddle, people will talk about, it can be anything, basically.
It can be a, a case-based study, it can be a wellbeing practice, it can be a quiz.
It literally can be anything.
But it's an opportunity for us to start our day on a positive note.
And from that, that ripple effect, like I said, literally, this is how we start our day.
People have come from other environments and they're like, what are this lot doing? You know, we might, we might be stretching, might be up on the balcony doing some morning stretching, you know, or things like that before we start work.
Or we'll have a tick box so you can tick off every time you feel your glass of run truck.
And we have step challenges, how many steps you get in the day and you get a rule bottle at the end of the month or something.
Just things like that, just so people.
Had early buy-in, they're really on board with it, and it just becomes part of the culture of the workplace.
It's completely normalized.
It's not strange or odd, whereas I know when I've spoken to other people about a huddle and the fact that actually the huddle is for people are allocated to it, they're given a list.
A month in advance, like, this is gonna be your huddle day.
It's down to you to do whatever you wanna do.
And at first, people were a bit nervous about that, but actually, as we know in advanced practice, part of being an advanced practitioner is that you can get up and give a presentation.
Yeah.
Or talk to people.
Actually, we're just talking to your team in the morning.
Your small team.
Uh, if you can do that, you can do anything.
And it just sets the tone for the day, hopefully encourages people to have a really good day.
Can I just ask that part, that huddle, is that now part of the working day? A hundred percent is, so now our, our day actually starts at 7 45 instead of eight o'clock.
Okay.
So we start at 7 45 and we finish at eight 15.
And all of this was all, is the practice giving recognition to the fact that.
The team are taking the time they're on board with this.
And actually, even though the front door's shut at eight o'clock, we don't finish at eight o'clock.
Yes, we, there's often patients still in the department.
There's things to do.
So all part of this has been that gradual understanding of actually what the staff do.
And going back to that feeling valued, you're valued.
They realize that actually having a 15 minute huddle is really beneficial to the staff.
They realize, actually we are not getting away at eight o'clock, so.
Reiki, our working day, eight 15 allows us that time to.
Reconvene.
Sometimes at the end of the day, we even reconvene and have a little debrief at the end of the day, how is everybody, did it all go? Okay? Because we work in separate rooms.
It's not a walled environment.
We are in separate consulting rooms, so sometimes you can go a few hours without seeing anybody, especially when you are a more senior practitioner, you're not necessarily going to people for that advice, like the more junior staff do.
So sometimes you don't see people.
Actually reconvening at the end of the day.
Just having at the end of the day check in is really nice.
Yeah, and And it's more than nice.
It's important to be fair.
Yeah, and and I think it sounds absolutely amazing everything that you've done and achieved, Cheryl, the fact that as well, that you talked earlier on about this being your leadership pillar and Absolutely it is.
Um, I would also suggest it's a certain amount towards the education pillar because in this time you've talked about, you do some case-based studies, but other things as well.
But what you are actually doing is you're creating a learning environment where people can learn, where people can ask and they can share, and nothing is too trivial and therefore it makes that sort of ability.
If you can talk about whatever in the morning and do stretches or whatever that is, you can also say to somebody quite easily, do you know, I don't know that.
Which can be really hard when you work somewhere.
Or actually I'd like to try this out.
I don't know if it would work, which was what you've done with your gratitude journal.
I'd like to try this out.
This was about learning, developing, and improving in the workplace.
So I would say this fits completely with that education pillar and probably that research pillar is brought in as well.
So I'm just really conscious of time and I just want to ask you a, a question and you, um, that people might be asking, why do you need to have gone off and done a course? I.
To be a professional nurse advocate in order to do all of this.
Is this not creativity? Is this not imagination? Is this not people just allowing you, could this not happen anyway? So I'm asking it just to, you know, I can see the benefit of the course.
Definitely.
Yeah.
But I just wanna put that sort of, almost like devil's advocate in and say, why did you have to do that course? I absolutely agree that loads of this is creativity and I don't need any qualification to be able to do any of this stuff a hundred percent.
And I have probably with the professional nurse Africa, I have been allowed to give it wings and expand it into an in, in ways that probably wasn't immune visions, however.
As I said earlier on, one size doesn't fit all.
What the professional Nurse Advocate course gave me was the tools to deliver the restorative conversations.
It very much was focused on delivering those restorative clinical supervision so that we could provide support to staff.
And it's not a counseling role, but what it is, a area of that you can direct people.
You can point them in the right direction and you can give them the information that they need or refer them on to counseling services or whatever.
So it's given me that underlying recognition and ability to recognize when people do need additional support that is far beyond anything that I can do, and not within my scope of practice, but to be able to direct them and absolutely in my, what are we, three, four years now of being a professional in Nurse Africa? Yes, of course I've had to do that.
I've had to direct people to proper counseling services or advise 'em to make appointments with their gps and things like that.
And I think that is where the professional nurse advocate, it gave me sort of that grounding and understanding of when, when you're outta your deck, when where, when you need to make that leap.
And it just opened up a whole new world to me.
It really, really did.
It opened up a whole new world.
That I had never investigated or really looked into.
You know, we'd heard the phrase of burnout and stuff like that, but actually reading articles and learning about research into burnout and more injury and things like that, and actually how that impacts the team and how we can turn that on its head and try and improve the way that we do things to improve.
Our staff's experience while they're working is only of benefit to patients.
If your staff are happy and feeling well supported and valued, they're gonna be delivering a really good quality care to the patients.
And that's what we all want to do.
Nobody wants, nobody in healthcare wants to go to work and be really, really rubbish at what they're doing or waking up in the morning and I dunno, like.
Having the dog be on well with the kids poorly or whatever you are running late, all of that can impact on your day.
And actually, if someone's running late and they're having really stressful morning and that huddle experience, just actually recognizing that somebody's not at their full potential can actually give you that space to allocate them something.
We divide our day up.
If you allocate them something that might be more stressful for them, you know, that particular area gives them stress.
Actually, let's not allocate them there.
Let's put them somewhere else.
Let's put them where they're working with two or three people instead on their own in triage or whatever.
Because actually they're having a stressful morning and we don't want to add to that stress.
So it's just about that recognition and that ability to recognize that and those little nuances.
Has been such an advantage to me, and that is the things that have been drip fed into the team and now it's second nature for whoever's in charge to recognize what's going on with their staff.
Hang on a minute.
This isn't occurred.
Let's sort this out now instead of just so, well, it is what it is and let's get on with it.
No, no.
We can sort this out.
It's really nice.
Yeah, it sounds really nice.
I was gonna ask you for a concluding point, but I think you've almost put it there, really.
So for anybody that that isn't doing this, what would be your message to them? I think like with any course that you go to university to learn, it's academic, it's on paper, and it gives you some tools and information.
What you need to do is grab hold of those and make them work for your team.
And I think that's the most important thing.
One size doesn't feel a professional Nurse advocate in the urgent treatment center in Wi Ball is not the same as a professional nurse advocate anywhere else.
We are all different and we all are constrained by what is acceptable in practice for the area of work that we work in.
So.
I know all of these things aren't achievable in all areas of practice, but little things that will be bold, putting that up in the staff room and changing the content every month, it's a pretty easy, quick win.
It's a real quick win and literally ours is in front of the tea and coffee and you stood there making a tea and coffee, and there it is in front of you.
So it is a quick win.
So things like that, grab hold of that and do that.
Just do that one thing.
It's amazing.
As you said, that'll make a difference to your staff, and ultimately that'll make a difference to the communities and the people that you care for a hundred percent, a hundred percent happy staff means good quality patient care.
Good, quality, safe patient care, probably to add into that.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Cheryl.
I love your passion.
I love your creativity.
I mean the creativity that you have that you've brought through this, and I think it's such an important thing to bring into health or social care or whatever we do.
So thank you so much for joining me today.
I really appreciate it.
Bye.
Thank you, Ruth.
I've enjoyed it.
Thank you so much.
You are welcome.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
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