MEL’S MESSAGE
Can you be bothered?
© 2013 MA Healthcare Ltd
I
t is over a year since I started writing this column for BJN (doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!), but this will be the last one. Although I have enjoyed doing it very much, I think it is time for something different. I am not a person who dwells on the past, but I do know the benefit of glancing back; it helps us see if we are making progress and what lessons we have learnt along the way, both positive and negative. Glancing back over the last 12 months for nursing in the UK does throw into sharp focus some highlights and some low points. The Francis Report on events at Mid Staffs, changes to NHS structures (especially in England), and continued poor performance by the Nursing and Midwifery Council spring to mind. But in reaction to these things, especially the Francis Report, I see a very positive growth in our focus on patient safety and person-centred care. I see more awareness, more willingness to speak up and more readiness to contribute to solutions and to take action. Much of this was crystallised for me in the celebrations for International Nurses’ Day in my own organisation, as well as those reported elsewhere. Among all this, I still spend a lot of time—glancing back and looking forward—thinking about how we can consistently raise the standard of nursing care and practice. As people retire, we often glance back and have an opportunity to learn lessons from across their career. I went to a retirement dinner of a friend, who was a medical director I used to work with in another organisation, and we did just that. As another esteemed medical colleague glanced back at the medical directors’ career in an after-dinner speech, my friend was described as a ‘bothering doctor’. He was always bothered by things that were not quite right and would then bother himself to find out what was going on and deal with it. Bothered is an interesting word usually used in the negative sense of ‘I can’t be bothered’. The thought of my friend and colleague being bothered in a very positive sense summed him up in his attention to the needs of individual patients as well as to the strategic direction of health care. ‘Be bothered’ is a phrase that also sums up much of what we need to do as nurses. If we bothered about some of the small things some of the big disasters would not happen. I have talked about this before in terms of personal professional accountability and will keep on talking about it. Many problems and issues for patients and staff happen because no one intervened early enough, or if someone did try to intervene, they got no real response. This is why people give up and feel they can’t be bothered. Why report an incident if you never hear the outcome of the investigation? Why challenge a rude and difficult
British Journal of Nursing, 2013, Vol 22, No 12
colleague if no one backs you up? Why go the extra mile if no one ever notices? I can understand why, in the end, some people can’t be bothered any more, but that makes me very sad. It means we have all failed to do what is right.
‘
Why report an incident if you never hear the outcome of the investigation? Why challenge a rude and difficult colleague if no one backs you up? Why go the extra mile if no one ever notices?
’
Being bothered is just as important for staff in senior clinical leadership and in any management roles as it is for any staff working on the front line. In fact, it is important for the whole organisation because it is all about culture. It is about the kind of values we hold in terms of putting patients first and the staff a very close second. I am giving up writing this column for BJN not because I can’t be bothered, but because I want to bother on with matters focused in my own health board. This column also appears on our intranet and I have been amazed by how many people bothered to look at it, so I am going to continue writing but with much more focus on our work here in NHS Lothian. We have been doing a lot of work across the organisation, directly engaging with large numbers of staff over this last year to identify and agree our values. The tricky part will be hard wiring these values into our culture. Not just through the obvious ways such as mentioning them in recruitment and at appraisal, but also in really demonstrating that we live them... that we can be bothered every day to act in a way which helps us deliver safe, effective, person-centred care. I am looking forward to the challenge. Thank you for reading the column—I hope you have enjoyed it. If you ever get the chance to write something like this then do bother to have a go! BJN
Melanie Hornett Nurse Director NHS Lothian Health Board
The views expressed in this column are those of the author Editor’s note: look out for our new columnist, Rory Farrelly, in the next issue of BJN
731
British Journal of Nursing. Downloaded from magonlinelibrary.com by 165.123.034.086 on November 28, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. . All rights reserved.
Can you be bothered?
© 2013 MA Healthcare Ltd
I
t is over a year since I started writing this column for BJN (doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!), but this will be the last one. Although I have enjoyed doing it very much, I think it is time for something different. I am not a person who dwells on the past, but I do know the benefit of glancing back; it helps us see if we are making progress and what lessons we have learnt along the way, both positive and negative. Glancing back over the last 12 months for nursing in the UK does throw into sharp focus some highlights and some low points. The Francis Report on events at Mid Staffs, changes to NHS structures (especially in England), and continued poor performance by the Nursing and Midwifery Council spring to mind. But in reaction to these things, especially the Francis Report, I see a very positive growth in our focus on patient safety and person-centred care. I see more awareness, more willingness to speak up and more readiness to contribute to solutions and to take action. Much of this was crystallised for me in the celebrations for International Nurses’ Day in my own organisation, as well as those reported elsewhere. Among all this, I still spend a lot of time—glancing back and looking forward—thinking about how we can consistently raise the standard of nursing care and practice. As people retire, we often glance back and have an opportunity to learn lessons from across their career. I went to a retirement dinner of a friend, who was a medical director I used to work with in another organisation, and we did just that. As another esteemed medical colleague glanced back at the medical directors’ career in an after-dinner speech, my friend was described as a ‘bothering doctor’. He was always bothered by things that were not quite right and would then bother himself to find out what was going on and deal with it. Bothered is an interesting word usually used in the negative sense of ‘I can’t be bothered’. The thought of my friend and colleague being bothered in a very positive sense summed him up in his attention to the needs of individual patients as well as to the strategic direction of health care. ‘Be bothered’ is a phrase that also sums up much of what we need to do as nurses. If we bothered about some of the small things some of the big disasters would not happen. I have talked about this before in terms of personal professional accountability and will keep on talking about it. Many problems and issues for patients and staff happen because no one intervened early enough, or if someone did try to intervene, they got no real response. This is why people give up and feel they can’t be bothered. Why report an incident if you never hear the outcome of the investigation? Why challenge a rude and difficult
British Journal of Nursing, 2013, Vol 22, No 12
colleague if no one backs you up? Why go the extra mile if no one ever notices? I can understand why, in the end, some people can’t be bothered any more, but that makes me very sad. It means we have all failed to do what is right.
‘
Why report an incident if you never hear the outcome of the investigation? Why challenge a rude and difficult colleague if no one backs you up? Why go the extra mile if no one ever notices?
’
Being bothered is just as important for staff in senior clinical leadership and in any management roles as it is for any staff working on the front line. In fact, it is important for the whole organisation because it is all about culture. It is about the kind of values we hold in terms of putting patients first and the staff a very close second. I am giving up writing this column for BJN not because I can’t be bothered, but because I want to bother on with matters focused in my own health board. This column also appears on our intranet and I have been amazed by how many people bothered to look at it, so I am going to continue writing but with much more focus on our work here in NHS Lothian. We have been doing a lot of work across the organisation, directly engaging with large numbers of staff over this last year to identify and agree our values. The tricky part will be hard wiring these values into our culture. Not just through the obvious ways such as mentioning them in recruitment and at appraisal, but also in really demonstrating that we live them... that we can be bothered every day to act in a way which helps us deliver safe, effective, person-centred care. I am looking forward to the challenge. Thank you for reading the column—I hope you have enjoyed it. If you ever get the chance to write something like this then do bother to have a go! BJN
Melanie Hornett Nurse Director NHS Lothian Health Board
The views expressed in this column are those of the author Editor’s note: look out for our new columnist, Rory Farrelly, in the next issue of BJN
731
British Journal of Nursing. Downloaded from magonlinelibrary.com by 165.123.034.086 on November 28, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. . All rights reserved.
