Juliet took a year from specialist training in Rehabilitation Medicine in Yorkshire and Humber Deanery to be a Clinical Leadership Fellow. Juliet is passionate about improving safety for patients in the NHS, and this is reflected in her portfolio of projects:

• Safer Surgery – implementing an innovative safer surgery programme through work with a number of surgical teams across the region, in partnership with health psychologists from the Yorkshire Quality and Safety research Group.
• Yorkshire Contributory Factors Framework (YCFF) as an intervention to improve safety culture and learning from incidents – working alongside the Improvement Academy Human Factors team with organisations in the region to test out and learn from the use of the YCFF in identifying all contributing factors to an adverse incident in a systematic manner.
• Achieving Reliable Care – developing and implementing changes to decrease variation in care provided and reduce avoidable delays in delivering inpatient care.
• Development of second victim resources – creating a web based resource to support healthcare professionals following patient safety incidents.

Juliet aimed to have a real impact on patient safety in the NHS, both through her projects with the Improvement Academy, and life-long through the skills learnt through the year.

Juliet shared some reflections at the end of her year working with the Improvement Academy as a Clinical Leadership Fellow:

“Being involved in a number of their quality improvement initiatives, as well as attending a variety of QI training events has greatly enhanced my understanding of quality improvement. I feel better equipped to design and implement quality improvement initiatives in the future, and look forward to applying this as I return to training in Rehabilitation Medicine.

Working alongside psychologists in the Yorkshire Quality and Safety Research Group and considering the academic literature regarding second victims have provided me with a valuable insight into the emotional pressures many NHS staff face, and have facilitated my reflection on how we can better support them in this. The failure to recognise or learn from when things are done well means we miss opportunities to improve both patient and staff experience, and I hope to apply this understanding as I return to training to ensure my own practice models a more balanced approach for the benefit of both patients and staff. I feel that my enhanced understanding of the NHS as a whole will enable me to work within it more effectively, and to liaise productively with those who have management responsibilities.

Personal development courses provided as a part of the future leaders programme have helped me to understand the leadership qualities I have already developed, and often unconsciously use whilst working as a registrar in Rehabilitation Medicine, as well as considering further areas for development.

In conclusion, this year has provided me with valuable opportunities for learning and personal development, which will enhance my practice as I return to training in Rehabilitation Medicine.”