Are you having to bite off more than you can chew? A blog by Sally Howard

Summary

The current challenges in the NHS are leading to staff burnout and staff leaving their jobs. In a new blog, hub topic lead Sally Howard asks us to take a few minutes out of our day to day work to reflect and re-calibrate.

Content

How is your 2024 going thus far? Are you on top of the world or has it landed with a dull thud?

Goodness knows there are challenges. Staff shortages are persistent and, even with the extra mile from so many staff, our patients are waiting longer than they should.

When we are at our best we have that clarity of purpose, we enjoy what we do (even though it can be very tough), we relish a challenge or five and, if truth be told, we’ll be looking for the next. Being asked to bite off more than we can chew and it’s a whole other dimension.

We can keep going with our noses against the grindstone but it’s not normally what people sign up for and it’s a very short term solution. So what can we do?

If this is resonating and your mojo is at risk of leaving the building, please close the door before it does and just take a moment to consider these three questions:

1. How do I feel when I am at my very best? What does it look like? Just a few adjectives will suffice – a picture, whatever works for you
2. What can I do to reconnect to that picture of me? Just three things. A proper break at work, noticing and appreciating the good stuff; you’ll know what works for you, and nothing outside your gift to do. 
3. How will I know when I’ve got there? A simple description. It’s just between you and whoever you want to share it with.

Take stock in a month or two to see how you are doing. There are some things that we can change, some things that we can influence and others that we may have to accept (at least for now). The things we can regulate is our own response, whatever comes our way. 

I have never ever met anyone who is always at the top of the game but a little time on re-calibration always goes along way. 

More blogs from Sally:

• Igniting your inner spirit
• Keep your light shining bright
• Swimming with the tide

About the Author

Sally has held national and local leadership roles within the NHS in a career spanning more than 30 years. A respected leader, passionate about improvement and inclusivity, she is trained in quality improvement methodologies and has spent the last 20 years in their practical application.

She is also a practising coach because its rarely just about the ‘what’ you do, it’s also ‘the way that you do it’. She works with leaders of small and large teams as a thinking partner to help them be their ‘best selves’ at work: 

• offering both challenge and support
• encouraging curiosity and bravery
• building confidence and resilience – few improvement journeys are plain sailing
• and sharing a few improvement tools along the way.

She has run collaborative improvement programmes nationally, worked with organisations facing significant challenge and over the last 2 years on the roll out of the Patient First Improvement System in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, melding it with work that had gone before, working intensively with wards and departments to build a culture of continuous improvement. 

She has also worked as an Investigating Officer for the Office of the Health Service Commissioner and experienced the ‘great’ and the ‘not so great’ as a carer for her own family.