The view of a student health visitor

We welcome many students on placements at LCH and aim to give them opportunities that will help them develop in their chosen field. Jenanne joined our Health Visiting team on a placement, and below she shares not only her experience of working in that service but also shadowing the senior management team...

"As a student health visitor who is soon to qualify, the opportunity to spend part of my training on Alternative Practice was attractive. This afforded me time to shadow other professionals and services to gain an insight into their practice and as such, I spent time with community midwives, school nurses, those who provide services for children with additional needs and shadowing health visitors in another NHS trust (amongst others). As illuminating as these experiences were, I couldn’t help but wonder what life was like at the top of the tree – and was very gratified when Thea, chief executive at LCH, agreed to have me shadow her for the day.

On the surface of it, spending the day in the Quality Committee and Senior Management Team meetings may not sound that interesting. But I was astonished at the breadth and scope of the services which LCH provides – and the commitment that those involved have towards providing quality care to all our service users. One guiding principle, it emerged, should underpin all care: would you want a loved one being cared for by this service?  If the answer is no, then concepts of ‘quality’ and ‘targets’ are irrelevant. We should all strive towards this gold standard, and not tolerate anything less no matter how challenging our clinical environment.

Another powerful message which I took away was that decision-making can be characterised by clarity and speed. It is appropriate to ask ‘why not?’ when others put up barriers to change; it is not enough to accept that things cannot be changed because they have always been done that way, or because there are personal politics at stake. Instead we must all ensure we are working as a team in both our locality and as part of the trust as a whole.

Far from being abstract and aloof, the fundamental message that I took away from the day was that those in senior management have an acute perception of what things are really like for staff ‘on the ground’ and that we are all working together towards the same goal: providing safe, transparent and top quality care for all who use our services."

Jenanne Fletcher, student health visitor

To find out more about the Health Visiting team, click here. 

Being mindful of your mental health

Stress, depression, anxiety can affect anyone. One in three of us regularly feel stressed. One in four of us feel anxious One in five of us feel depressed.* 

Sabina, Dave and Berni all recognised they were struggling to control their stress. Signs of stress can vary by person but common signs include feeling on edge, angry, unable to switch off, tearful, having poor concentration. 

Each of them reached out to Leeds IAPT, either through their GP or by referring themselves by calling 0113 843 4388. To help manage their stress, anxiety or depression, it was recommended they attended the 'Stress Control' course. This runs for six weeks  at venues across Leeds, at times in the day or evening. Each session has a different focus, from learning to control your thoughts to controlling your body to helping you get a good night's sleep.

In these short films, they have described how the course has helped them:

If you feel like you need help with managing stress, you can get in touch with our Leeds IAPT team on 0113 843 4388. Find out more about Leeds IAPT - www.leedscommunityhealthcare.nhs.uk/our_services_az/leeds_iapt/

*Mental Health Foundation

The business of delivering specialist services

Meet Dan, he’s the Business Manager for our specialist services which are healthcare services for specialist communities (such as prisoners, detainees in custody, the homeless and asylum seekers), or specialist conditions (such as dental, podiatry, MSK, healthy living, mental health).

Dan has shared with us what his role as a business manager entails…

Dan collecting an award at the
LCH Achievement Awards in 2014.

Tell us, what does your job involve?

I am a key link for our services with commissioners. I ensure we have fair contracts that are value for money, that are well specified and that have effective and realistic performance measures. I help services compete for new business or compete to retain their existing business when it goes out to tender. I manage the innovation and business change functions so that services are supported to innovate, improve and embed any changes.

What attracted you to this role?

I've always worked in healthcare and had got into quite strategic roles which felt detached from services and real people. I saw this role advertised and had worked with York Street Practice in a past life and had enjoyed it so I thought I would give it a go. It's a very busy and challenging role, I've never worked so hard in my life! However, it is extremely rewarding as I can see how I am impacting on healthcare for real people despite not being a clinician myself.

What is the best bit about doing your job?

No day is the same. I get to go all over the city, meeting all sorts of people. I'm often working with services that have problems but this doesn't get me down as I feel that I am helping them overcome issues or barriers.

Do you have a particular highlight from your career to date?

I think it was when we won the very first NHSE 'Excellence in Public Participation' award last year. It was for a piece of work where we collaborated with homeless and asylum seeker clients at York Street Practice to improve how they access services and as part of this we won some funding so that patients could use digital technology to manage their own healthcare. When we went to collect the award for this innovation we got to take service users with us. It was extremely powerful and so rewarding to have national acclaim for what was essentially a very simple project. Also when we won the police custody bids it was so exciting - it was hard to believe that months of hard work and late nights had paid off and it made me extremely proud to work for LCH and to have been part of that team.

How has your past experience helped with your role?

I did a Communications degree back in the day so people often think it's weird I've ended up with the job that I do in the NHS. However, the key competency I need for my day to day working is communication skills and the ability to form effective relationships, so perhaps it wasn't such a waste of time after all! I also did a lot of voluntary caring roles at university which made me realise early on that I wanted a career in the NHS and not in the cut throat media industry!

If someone was thinking of joining the trust in a similar role, what advice would you give them?

Regardless of whether a role in LCH is clinical or managerial we need people who have the right values and who have good people skills - if this is you then do come and work for us. We can train people in all manner of skills and knowledge areas but we cannot train you in the values - this has to be core to you. If you have our values then get in touch!

If you would like to join our team, click here for our latest roles being advertised. 

The Heart of Nursing

Caroline is a cardiac nurse specialist and as part of her role cares for heart failure patients, monitors their symptoms and helps them to plan their long-term care. She is one of 17 community cardiac nurses providing long-term care to patients within the trust.

Heart failure patients require ongoing monitoring because their symptoms, which include shortness of breath, fluid retention and fatigue. It can vary greatly from patient to patient, and also day to day.

“Often we see patients who are really uncomfortable but because of the intervention that we do and the adjustments we make to their medication, their symptoms improve dramatically. Often, within a week or two, patients say they can breathe easier again,” she explains.

Many of these interventions are carried out in Caroline’s heart failure clinic. Caroline spends time with the patients discussing their symptoms and taking blood tests. Based on this information, she can adjust doses of medication accordingly and give lifestyle advice, which can help people to manage heart failure.

Caroline also sees patients in their own home when they are too unwell to attend the clinic. If a patient who is retaining fluid doesn’t respond to an increase in water tablets, they often find that they benefit from having it delivered intravenously via a drip. In the past, dealing with this would mean admitting the patient to hospital. A few years ago, our community cardiac team in Leeds received a grant from the British Heart Foundation’s ground breaking scheme to pilot delivery of intravenous diuretics at home. The trial was a great success, and since, the service has been able to improve the lives of many patients that have been able to receive treatment in their own homes. 

Find out more about the community cardiac service here.