Samantha Jones

Hello my name is Sam, for the last fourteen months, I have been seconded as an Interim Ward Sister of a ten bedded orthopaedic elective surgery ward.

My secondment has taught me that I reflect on everything within my own practice. I have had times where I have felt proud of what I have achieved, yet equally have felt challenged and I have felt this on both a personal and professional basis.

I am passionate about delivery of high-quality person-centred care for our patients. For staff I want every team member to feel valued, listened to and supported.  My role has felt like it has been about harmonising these factors, continually promoting initiatives/processes/measures that the organisation has put in place in order to drive quality and patient safety forward. Ultimately, aligning these together to ensure that high quality safe patient care is delivered, as this is the fundamental component of it all.

I am excited about joining the Inspire Improvement Fellowship programme as I strive to continually develop professionally, whilst gaining further confidence as a leader.

I seek to further understand leadership styles and also explore my own leadership style. I am looking forward to meeting other fellows, sharing ideas and experiences together. I am excited at the thought that some programme activities might take me out of my ‘comfort zone’, as I appreciate this is part of self-development. Being a confident effective leader is important to me as I believe this will positively impact on team working on the ward.

I would like to explore team working on the ward; in particular on how it is affected when our team faces challenging shifts with competing demands. My vision as team leader is to strengthen and develop team working further, to enable a resilience which adjusts swiftly to change and challenges, fostering team members to feel inspired to promote innovative ways of working to overcome challenges. This will undoubtedly have a positive impact upon patient care and the experiences for families and friends.

Fundamentally, culture underpins team working and I seek to understand the current culture of team working on the ward.  I cannot do this alone and will need to facilitate opportunities for our team to explore this together. In doing this we should recognise each other’s values, establishing how these can be influential within the teams working culture. Importantly, organisational values should also be considered and how they are influential on both individual and team values. As a team we need to discover ways to align these within our working culture for better patient outcomes. I am hoping this programme will allow me to develop some innovative ways to facilitate this.

Undertaking this programme is going to be an exciting journey for me and the team. I am optimistic that this journey together will foster team development and inspire a positive team working culture. This will ensure sustainability in delivery of safe high-quality patient-centred care.

For more information contact Sam: [email protected]