Congratulations to our Patient Safety colleagues Daniel and Julie who are in Nice today at the Appreciative Inquiry Conference 2019 – sharing Walsall Healthcare’s achievements around changing its governance culture and implementing an ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ approach to working; achievements which are giving the trust recognition at a national level!
After bagging an award at the 2018 HSJ Patient Safety Awards, winning in the ‘Clinical Governance and Risk Management’ category, the team have continued to share their experiences and have today been asked to lead a 75 minute workshop with the conference attendees, covering topics such as Learning from Excellence, the Walsall Patient Safety Strategy, Duty of Candour and more.
Daniel Hodgkiss, Patient Safety Manager for Medicine and Long-Term Conditions and Julie Romano, Interim Head of Quality and Assurance, will be representing the only NHS organisation in England and Wales; demonstrating the engagement their team has cultivated around patient safety culture with stakeholders in the trust.
Julie explained: “Appreciative Inquiry is about engaging clinical and non-clinical staff in a new way of working – it’s about how you adapt your language, speaking in a positive manner and avoiding a blame culture.
“We sometimes find ourselves in sad or distressing situations, but if we can ask ourselves ‘What have we learned from this?’ then we can use this as an opportunity to improve, and as a result, enhance the care we offer to patients. Appreciative Inquiry certainly helps our staff to do this.”
The conference, taking place 20 – 22 March 2019, is described as opportunity for individuals, businesses, health institutions and more, from over 30 countries, to demonstrate and share initiatives – “fostering hope all over the world.”
Based at the Nice Acropolis Congress Centre, the pair will demonstrate the innovative work taking place at Walsall, such as the patient safety quality/risk roadshows, departmental safety huddles, kitchen table events etc., and the demonstrable outcomes, particularly around the decreased numbers of serious incidents following appreciative work streams and immediate proactive actions.
We’re #WalsallandProud of Daniel, Julie and the Patient Safety Team!