Louise York

Practice Development Lead Nurse for OPS community and urgent care services, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

FoNS Residential Programme Participant

The team I’m in is the practice development team. There are just three of us and we work in different areas and with different people. I cover 12 teams.

The residential programme has definitely impacted how I approach the teams. When I first started the job, I just wanted things to be done, but having been on the residential, I approach things differently and I’ve become a lot more patient.

I work with so many different managers and prior to coming on the course, I would struggle with reaching out to all the managers in an effective way as they all respond differently. Now I think about approaching people in different ways depending on the individual and the culture of the workplace. I think about the language we use and how that impacts the culture.

I learned a lot about leadership and leadership styles about the style I am and what other people are. I am now confident about using different ways of leading, for example using the virtue cards as an icebreaker. I’ve also learnt that it’s ok to sit with silence, and discomfort. When you are at your most vulnerable, you share more and we learn more. At a recent team away day, I insisted that people didn’t sit with their friends, and so people were able to learn from and with new people.