Opening the door for a gentleman near the School of Health Sciences led to three Student Nurses, myself Bev Williams, and my two colleagues Claire Hosker and Tracy Williams, being invited to spend time with Mr Peter Homa, Chief Executive of the NUH Trust, and shadowing him to a clinically- focussed Directors group meeting.
On opening the door, my immediate thought was that I recognised him from the Trust website and I had quoted him in my assignments in my Degree course in Adult Nursing; so I asked the question and the answer was affirmative ~ this was Peter Homa. We introduced ourselves and discussed the course and our love of nursing and a little of our backgrounds.
In October we met Peter in his office and chatted for half an hour. We all found Peter to be very down to earth, interested in us as people and very approachable. We were made to feel very much at ease and he was open to all our questions which he replied to with great enthusiasm, openness and thoughtfulness. Even my colleague Claire's interest in Peter's personal journey which resulted in his present position in the Trust was met with detail and openness. We saw his passion for the Trust, his respect for us as student nurses and desire to involve us in the meeting that followed.
The large conference table filled the room and we could have felt quite intimidated by the seniority of the people who filed into the room, but they wouldn't have allowed that. I considered the knowledge contained in that room, the intelligence of the people in there and the immense responsibility in their roles within the NUH Trust and I weighed that up with the welcoming, again down to earth and friendly approach of everyone there. Not that seniority and unfriendliness correlate of course but we were aware of whose presence we were in as the Directorate. Busy people with, as I said, huge responsibilities and commitments.
Everyone introduced themselves, commencing with Jenny Leggott, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Nursing, who asked if we were looking to take her job to which I replied "As a mature student I haven't the time left to climb that ladder", which was met with laughter from everybody present.
To explain the meeting I will quote from the letter Peter sent each one of us to include as evidence for our portfolio ~ "The Directors' Group is the decision making forum that brings together all Clinical Directors and Corporate Directors and also, on a monthly basis all Clinical Leads i.e. most senior Nurses. The Directors' Group is subordinate only to the Trust Board in terms of decision making powers and responsibilities." Also, "The Directors' Group agenda covered many pressing clinical management issues including the preparation for the future Care Quality Commission inspection of NUH, plans for caring for emergency patients during Winter, risk assessment of the number of critical care capacity and learning from a number of "Better for you" improvement projects in Radiology. It provided a broad cross section of substantial items from which a director connection to patient care is evident."
We were all enthralled by the entire process and felt very privileged to have been given this opportunity to see this decision-making forum and then recognising that tough decisions need to be made and how they affect staff at floor level. Everyone was wholly focussed on patient care and making improvements. My colleague Tracy wants to return there one day as a member of the Board. She was utterly overwhelmed by the opportunity, the welcome received and the feeling of being included in the meeting, albeit silently.
Immediately after the meeting Peter came and knelt by our chairs and we had a debriefing. We expressed our thoughts and reiterated our gratitude. We discovered that we were the first students to have ever attended this meeting. In Peter's letter to us he has expressed the following for which we are very humbled and yet proud.
"The three Student Nurses are excellent ambassadors for the School of Health Sciences and the Nursing profession. Their dedication and devotion to patients and desire to provide the best care possible shine through. I understand that the Student Nurses also valued the opportunity of understanding how the Trust's overall governance seeks to support direct patients care. It was a pleasure to meet with the three Student Nurses."
What more can I say? Thank you Peter, Jenny and all the Board members for this opportunity and for the wonderful welcome we received.
Beverley Williams/Claire Hosker/Tracy Williams (11/01 cohort) – soon to become Registered Nurses.
Posted on Thursday 21st November 2013