Blackheath 2019-21

Nursing Strategy

Believing and achieving together

Together we will...

Keep you informed, comfortable and safe

Treat you as we would wish to be treated ourselves

Empower patients to become leaders in making improvements with us

Understand your needs as an individual and work together to meet them

As I enter my second year as your Head of Nursing and Quality, it remains the

biggest privilege ever for me to lead our profession and work with such amazing

people. I want to thank each and every one of you for everything that you do.

It is absolutely clear that the nursing workforce will need to transform

through the development of new roles and new ways of working to ensure

we have a workforce that is fit for purpose in a modernised, reformed and

integrated health service.

I have been overwhelmed by your commitment in supporting our patients

and colleagues; your resilience to the ever increasing demands and

challenges; and your continuous drive for excellent outcomes, quality

improvement, and efficient use of resources.

Our clinical prioritises are to focus on recruitment, retention, professional

development and strong leadership to enhance clinical innovation and

improvement, leadership excellence, and a culture embracing

personalisation and experience.

Introduction

Statement from

Head of Nursing

and Quality

Most of all – I want to support you all to be able to do the job you love,

making a difference to peoples’ lives and being the best that you can.

The focus for this strategy is:

• Nursing Workforce

• Valuing and Developing the Nursing Workforce

• Patient Experience

The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) Compassion

Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue (ProQOL) Version 5 (2009)

will be used to measure the outcomes including nursing forums,

local surveys and focus groups for all staff.

Ashley Honeyman

Head of Nursing and Quality

Ashley Honeyman

Head of Nursing

and Quality

Nursing Workforce

As part of our workforce it is important to ensure staff feel supported in a

challenging environment. At Blackheath we want to nurture our nursing staff

to ensure they feel valued and recognition within our organisation.

It is important that we make Blackheath a great place to work by:

• Educating and motivating staff to be the best

• Nurturing leadership at all levels

• Encourage involvement and contribution of ideas from staff

• Promote an open culture where staff can voice concerns without fear

• Encourage staff to achieve healthy work life balance

• Provide a buddy system for new nurses and Rehabilitation Assistants

• To have a voice in nursing forums and refl ection practice

• Development of a supervision model

• Recognise and reward great performance

• Recognition through annual staff recognition awards and being nominated for

Huntercombe Heroes award

• A valued based recruitment process and retention of staff by having

the added benefi ts to develop our nursing staff workforce and training

opportunities. Whilst offering fl exible working opportunities.

• Induction to therapy roles and joint CPD with therapists

Emmanual Aghogho

Staff Nurse

Joy in Work

Our Conversation into Action (CiA) process engages staff, as well as

patients to consider what changes can be made to create a staff-driven local

implementation plan. This ensures that Blackheath have a process and plan to

ensure we are doing as much as we can to respond to feedback.

With increasing demands on time, resources, and energy, in addition to poorly

designed systems of daily work, it’s not surprising health care professionals

are experiencing burnout at increasingly higher rates, with staff turnover rates

also on the rise. Yet, joy in work is more than just the absence of burnout or an

issue of individual wellness; it is a system property.

Burnout leads to lower levels of staff engagement, patient experience, and

productivity, and an increased risk of workplace accidents. Lower levels of

staff engagement are linked with lower-quality patient care, including safety,

and burnout limits providers’ empathy — a crucial component of effective

and person-centred care.

IHI believes an important part of the solution is to focus on restoring joy

to the health care workforce.

Where leaders ask colleagues at all levels of the organization, “What matters

to you?” — enabling them to better understand the barriers to joy in work,

and co-create meaningful, high-leverage strategies to address these issues.

Rachel Chatton

Rehabilitation Assistant

Just Culture

Just culture is whether a staff member involved in a patient safety incident

requires specific individual support or intervention to work safely.

Action singling out an individual is rarely appropriate - most patient safety

issues have deeper causes and require wider action.

It highlights important principles that need to be considered before formal

management action is directed at an individual staff member.

An important part of a just culture is being able to explain the approach

that will be taken if an incident occurs. As well as protecting staff from unfair

targeting, by using just culture it helps protect patients by removing the

tendency to treat wider patient safety issues as individual issues.

We are ensuring to work alongside Conversation in action so as

not to undermine improvement efforts focused on Joy in Work.

Ayo Afuape

Rehabilitation Assistant

Valuing and Developing the Nursing Workforce

At a time when there are concerns about the sustainability of the nursing

workforce, never before has it been so important to ensure all our existing

nurses and those coming to Blackheath feel valued and developed to deliver

their potential.

We believe in caring for our nursing staff and ensuring that all nurses

have access to continued learning from the time of joining Blackheath.

We believe in providing a fulfi lling career and offering opportunities for

working across and within different services, making the most of the diversity

of service provision across the organisation. We believe nurses should have

access to develop their leadership potential including active involvement in

organisation wide initiatives.

As part of this development we will invest in new and extended nursing roles,

including the ability to manage clinical care in partnership with individuals,

families and carers. This includes the analysis and synthesis of complex

problems across a range of settings, enabling innovative solutions to enhance

people’s experience and improve outcomes.

We will take forward the apprenticeships for our Rehabilitation Assistant,

Trainee Nursing Associates and Nursing Apprenticeships, whilst supporting

the organisation on grow your own nurses.

Theona Madure

Staff Nurse

To achieve this we will:

• Commit to a culture of care and compassion to underpin Blackheath as the

employer of choice.

• Develop opportunities within the service.

• Strengthen links with further education providers; encouraging a visible clinical

presence within the nursing curriculum.

• Ensure access to careers counselling/consultancy and mentoring including those

who choose nursing as a career change.

• Have a nursing workforce that increasing reflects the diversity of our population.

• Develop a career framework which inspires and supports nurses at each

point of their journey and reflects changing roles and opportunities. This will

include formalising the Trainee Nurse Apprenticeships and supporting Trainee

Nursing Associates.

• Endeavour to retain the skills, knowledge and experience of our clinical staff in

the latter years of their clinical career, including the role of legacy mentors.

• Endeavour to have a structured named nurse competencies

• Establish a Rehabilitation Assistant training programme encompassing the care

certificate, to teach fundamental skills and practice, to support staff from the

beginning of their careers with Blackheath

• Provide opportunities for staff to engage in the sharing of best practice,

and contribute to further developments through in-house training

“We will Establish a

Rehabilitation Assistant

training programme

encompassing the care

certificate, to teach

fundamental skills and

practice, to support

staff from the beginning

of their careers with

Blackheath”

Pledge Boards

In 2014, NHS employers focussed on providers of services under an NHS

banner to improve staff engagement; and in turn this would support

recruitment, retention of staff and improvement of services. This initiative

has continued and evolved into staff health and well -being as well as

capturing aspirations.

At Huntercombe Blackheath, the health and well-being of our staff

means a great deal to us. We want our staff to know that they do

make a difference to service delivery and to our patient’s successes

and outcomes.

We invite new recruits at the local induction to make a pledge which

encompasses their commitment to their new role and to the care provided to

our patients. Although the pledges are not legally binding it does however link

into our values and aspirations.

We at Huntercombe Blackheath want to be a considerate and inspirational

employer who provides high-quality working environments for staff.

By sharing both individually and collectively through partnership working

we can achieve much more.

Christine Nicholls

Rehabilitation Assistant

Patient Experience

Patient experience’ is what the process of receiving care feels like for the patient,

their family and carers. It is a key element of quality, alongside providing clinical

excellence and safer care. The way that the health system delivers its care and

support them or the nurse explains what is happening – has an impact on the

experience the patient has. If safe care and clinical excellence are the ‘what’ of

healthcare, then experience is the ‘how’. Starting with the patient, listening to their

needs, and designing the experience to meet these needs is achievable and results

in an environment where individual patients feel cared for and supported services.

The starting point for measuring patients’ experiences has been an agreed set of

standards together with a set of measurable indicators. At the heart of this are

patient-centred care and patients’ priorities. national patient surveys, ward-level

surveys, interviews and focus groups, patient forums, informal feedback to PALs

formal complaints, comments on social media and advocacy forums and feedback.

The three-themed approach below aims to facilitate a positive patient experience,

making the shift from ‘doing to’ to ‘working with’ patients and those using our

services. Alongside the themes are our pledges to ensure that we are making a

positive difference.

1 We will listen and respond to feedback

2 We will ensure that we involve our Patient Partners

3 We will improve information and accessibility

Bola Gaji

Staff Nurse

Our Patient

Pledges

Together we will...

Together we will...

Introduce ourselves and call you the name you want to be called.

Keep you informed, comfortable and safe.

Provide as many ways as we can for you to tell us about your experience.

Strive to understand your experience and use that understanding

to improve our care.

Help you understand what is happening and involve you in

decisions made about your care.

Work in partnership to make improvements.

Ensure we share what has changed as a result of the feedback you give us.

Ensure we respond to complaints within the agreed timescales.

Treat you as we would wish to be treated ourselves.

Understand your needs as an individual and work together to meet them.

Make all reasonable adjustments to the care we provide based on

your individual needs

Empower patients to become leaders in making improvements with us

The Huntercombe Group

Oaks Lodge

Fordham Road

Newmarket

CB8 7XN

0330 660 5555

www.huntercombe.com

youtube.com/Thehuntercombegroup

facebook.com/TheHuntercombeGroup

twitter.com/HuntercombeTHG

For enquiries or referrals please contact us on:

12.6.19Believing and achieving together

If you would like any further information

on our services, please contact us:

Blackheath Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre

80-82 Blackheath Hill,

London

SE10 8AD

blackheath@huntercombe.com

0208 692 4007