This month, we sat down with Quality Improvement Facilitator and RMN Stephen Speed to explore what drives his passion for improving outcomes across our services. From supporting clinical teams to shaping meaningful change through audits and collaboration, Stephen brings a wealth of insight into what quality truly looks like at Northern Healthcare.

Can you tell us a little about your role as a Quality Improvement Facilitator and what a typical day looks like for you?

“A typical day consists of logging on and checking emails and incident reports for my region and services, which I support initially, ensuring that incidents are being closed in a timely manner and that these are updated on the people we support’s risk assessments. Depending on the day, I could be in service supporting face-to-face audits or completing training with the staff. As I also work for the clinical team, I can sometimes have discussions with people we support regarding their mental state or any other issues they may wish to discuss. I also assist the team in attending meetings etc. On a weekly basis, we assist in gathering data for the weekly dashboard and compliance report. On a monthly basis we organise the monthly governance report.” 

What motivated you to pursue a career in quality improvement within health and social care?

“I work in a dual role as an RMN/Quality Improvement Facilitator; however, throughout my time working as an inpatient nurse, I was always very focused on improving outcomes both for the patients and for the ward. I had additional roles and responsibilities focusing on clinical audits, including auditing Mental Health Act documents as well as clinic room and medication audits. I would share actions with the other ward nurses, the speciality doctor and the consultant working with them to achieve the actions or to address any barriers. I also worked with and alongside the hospital’s medicines management committee to improve medicines management as a whole in the hospital, which required me to work with other wards, the quality team in the hospital and the pharmacy team.  Later in my career, I was lucky enough to progress to become a deputy ward manager, so I then began to complete audits on care plans and risk assessments to work in the same way as previously. I worked with the ward nurses in improving our documentation and working with the ward manager to address any barriers to improvement. I also assisted the ward in ensuring that we were CQC-ready.”

How do you identify areas that may benefit from quality improvement?

“We can do this both in person at the service or remotely. Usually through the completion of internal audits, but sometimes it can be picked up from incident reports, looking at people we support, documentation such as care plans/risk assessments, and progress notes. It can also come through the service itself who has identified an area of need. We also pick up area improvements through external audits, which may be completed by external quality teams or the local authority.” 

Our PROUD values are central to everything we do. Which one resonates most with you and why?

“I resonate mostly with positive. I love the job that I do and always come with a positive attitude. I always try and ensure that people understand my role, and although others may see areas of improvement as a negative, I try and make sure that others understand that I just want our services to be outstanding, as I know a lot of hard work goes into the services.” 

What are some small but meaningful changes you’ve seen that have made a big impact?

“Some small but meaningful changes that have made a big impact can be the way that we ask the people we support to do things, or change our approach to be person-centred. A lot of changes on audits can often be small things to complete or quick wins but can increase the percentage of compliance greatly.” 

How has Northern Healthcare supported your professional development?

“Northern Healthcare has enabled me to work in a dual role, which is something that I previously never thought was possible. I was always under the impression that I would either have to sacrifice working clinically or working in a quality improvement role, but Northern Healthcare has been amazing in enabling me to do both. My current dual role is the best of both worlds, and it’s safe to say I love what I do!” 

What advice would you give to someone who wants to grow their skills in quality improvement?

“Be open-minded, don’t be afraid to ask the quality team for help, we want to work collaboratively with services to ensure that their hard work is being shown in all the correct ways.” 

Interested in joining our team? If Stephen’s journey has inspired you, take a look at our latest opportunities and start your own career with Northern Healthcare.