Careers
Sustaining change Danielle Woods’s career took a new direction after a mentor encouraged her interest in dementia. Currently on secondment as a project manager in dementia care, she tells Daniel Allen about the challenges and rewards of her role and describes how she made the move from the emergency department
AMBULANCE CREWS call it blue-light syndrome, and Danielle Woods admits that she has it. The phrase refers to the addictive rush of adrenaline, the excitement, experienced by staff in emergency care who have no idea what challenges the day’s shift will bring. Ms Woods, who has spent most of her career working in the emergency department (ED), describes it as like watching a TV drama and then realising it is reality, not fiction, and that you have a starring role. ‘You either love it or you hate it,’ she says. For now, however, Ms Woods is finding equal satisfaction in a very different role: as dementia project manager for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. How did her career take such a dramatic turn? Brief detour She qualified in 1998 and, during her training in Bradford, had ‘loved every minute’ of an ED placement. A lack of jobs on qualifying meant a brief detour into renal care at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, but after six months she was back in Bradford and at the start of what would become 15 years in the ED. Then came an opportunity for a secondment as a practice lecturer at the University of Bradford, teaching adult-branch nursing students. A master’s followed and, after it was suggested that she should find a career mentor, she met Claire Surr, reader in dementia studies at NURSING OLDER PEOPLE
the university. ‘She got me interested in dementia,’ says Ms Woods. She became involved in a working group looking at the care of people with dementia in the ED and, in August 2012, applied successfully for a secondment as the trust’s dementia project manager. Her move from the ED coincided with national drives to improve dementia care, especially in acute hospitals where the Department of Health (DH) estimates that 25 per cent of beds are occupied by people with the condition. In 2012, the DH introduced a new Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) goal aimed at identifying patients with dementia and ensuring prompt referral and follow up after discharge. ‘That led to a fundamental review in the trust,’ Ms Woods says. All patients over the age of 75 are now screened in line with the CQUIN pathway, known as FAIR: find, assess, investigate, refer. She also works with the trust’s head of nursing to make the hospital environment more dementia-friendly, and co-ordinates two other workstreams that aim to improve communication and staff understanding of dementia. Education workshops, some involving actors and carers, have been well received, she says, and have helped change attitudes. ‘It has been amazing. Nurses have come away saying, “I really enjoyed that, thank you.”’ The test, however, lies in sustaining change. ‘It’s getting them to embed learning and practice changes into the
everyday care they provide,’ says Ms Woods. ‘You have to challenge their practice – help them to understand that people are individuals and care needs to be adapted.’ Understanding the pressures She sometimes gets frustrated when she feels her work is not proving as productive in changing practice as she would hope. ‘But you have to understand where others are coming from. They are thinking, “What do you know about the pressures on my ward?” The bad days are when I feel people don’t share my enthusiasm.’ That said, good days far outweigh the bad, and one of the many rewards is taking time to help care for older people on an acute medical ward. ‘That’s really nice. And it gives you that grounding of understanding where you are and why you are doing it.’ Her secondment ends in April and she is looking forward to taking her new expertise and applying it back in the ED. But she is keeping all options open. ‘I am happy to go back to the ED, but it depends what opportunities are available.’ In the meantime, she advises those in roles similar to hers to keep breaking down barriers. ‘Don’t be scared. If people are saying, “You can’t do this because of this”, challenge them and ask them to produce evidence. People like us need to stand up for those with dementia.’ Daniel Allen is a freelance writer February 2014 | Volume 26 | Number 1 41
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Sustaining change Danielle Woods’s career took a new direction after a mentor encouraged her interest in dementia. Currently on secondment as a project manager in dementia care, she tells Daniel Allen about the challenges and rewards of her role and describes how she made the move from the emergency department
AMBULANCE CREWS call it blue-light syndrome, and Danielle Woods admits that she has it. The phrase refers to the addictive rush of adrenaline, the excitement, experienced by staff in emergency care who have no idea what challenges the day’s shift will bring. Ms Woods, who has spent most of her career working in the emergency department (ED), describes it as like watching a TV drama and then realising it is reality, not fiction, and that you have a starring role. ‘You either love it or you hate it,’ she says. For now, however, Ms Woods is finding equal satisfaction in a very different role: as dementia project manager for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. How did her career take such a dramatic turn? Brief detour She qualified in 1998 and, during her training in Bradford, had ‘loved every minute’ of an ED placement. A lack of jobs on qualifying meant a brief detour into renal care at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, but after six months she was back in Bradford and at the start of what would become 15 years in the ED. Then came an opportunity for a secondment as a practice lecturer at the University of Bradford, teaching adult-branch nursing students. A master’s followed and, after it was suggested that she should find a career mentor, she met Claire Surr, reader in dementia studies at NURSING OLDER PEOPLE
the university. ‘She got me interested in dementia,’ says Ms Woods. She became involved in a working group looking at the care of people with dementia in the ED and, in August 2012, applied successfully for a secondment as the trust’s dementia project manager. Her move from the ED coincided with national drives to improve dementia care, especially in acute hospitals where the Department of Health (DH) estimates that 25 per cent of beds are occupied by people with the condition. In 2012, the DH introduced a new Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) goal aimed at identifying patients with dementia and ensuring prompt referral and follow up after discharge. ‘That led to a fundamental review in the trust,’ Ms Woods says. All patients over the age of 75 are now screened in line with the CQUIN pathway, known as FAIR: find, assess, investigate, refer. She also works with the trust’s head of nursing to make the hospital environment more dementia-friendly, and co-ordinates two other workstreams that aim to improve communication and staff understanding of dementia. Education workshops, some involving actors and carers, have been well received, she says, and have helped change attitudes. ‘It has been amazing. Nurses have come away saying, “I really enjoyed that, thank you.”’ The test, however, lies in sustaining change. ‘It’s getting them to embed learning and practice changes into the
everyday care they provide,’ says Ms Woods. ‘You have to challenge their practice – help them to understand that people are individuals and care needs to be adapted.’ Understanding the pressures She sometimes gets frustrated when she feels her work is not proving as productive in changing practice as she would hope. ‘But you have to understand where others are coming from. They are thinking, “What do you know about the pressures on my ward?” The bad days are when I feel people don’t share my enthusiasm.’ That said, good days far outweigh the bad, and one of the many rewards is taking time to help care for older people on an acute medical ward. ‘That’s really nice. And it gives you that grounding of understanding where you are and why you are doing it.’ Her secondment ends in April and she is looking forward to taking her new expertise and applying it back in the ED. But she is keeping all options open. ‘I am happy to go back to the ED, but it depends what opportunities are available.’ In the meantime, she advises those in roles similar to hers to keep breaking down barriers. ‘Don’t be scared. If people are saying, “You can’t do this because of this”, challenge them and ask them to produce evidence. People like us need to stand up for those with dementia.’ Daniel Allen is a freelance writer February 2014 | Volume 26 | Number 1 41
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