Please introduce yourself, your job title, how long you've been in your current role, and how long you've worked at HHFT?
Hello, I’m Iona and I’m Quality Improvement lead for surgery. I’ve been in this role for 18 months and have been working in Quality Improvement for five years. I work across the whole of surgery - across all sites.
How do you explain your role in the QI team to those that may be unfamiliar with Quality Improvement?
I support people to understand and address the things that are important to them and their patients in their areas of work. I bring some tools that can support us all to work together to improve things. I don’t have all the answers (or a magic wand, sadly!) but can support with training, coaching, direct project support - and with sharing and promoting your QI work. I’m always happy to hear from anyone who is interested in QI or have any ideas for improvement.
How did you end up where you are now? What has your career journey looked like up to this point?
I’ve always been interested in working on service development and in my previous clinical leadership role as a Speech and Language Therapist I had lots of opportunities for this. These experiences inspired me to take up a three-year full time Consultant Practitioner secondment with Health Education England. I really enjoyed this, and quality improvement was a core element alongside training and education, leadership and developing clinical practice.
This led to my first QI role in Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation before I joined Hampshire Hospitals - I’ve not looked back!
What have been a highlight for you at work recently?
This year's Improvement Conference! I loved working with the Improvement team on this. It was really exciting to hear about all the work going on and I found it really inspiring.
What would you say to someone who was curious about Quality Improvement and how the tools/methodology could help them in their roles, but were unsure of where to start?
QI really is for anyone in the Trust. I think it can change the way you approach issues and find opportunities, even when things are feeling tough, and resources are tight. There are always things we can do to make a difference, and sometimes those small changes can have a huge impact - whether they directly impact on patient care or improve the way we all work together to deliver this.
Just get in touch! We are a friendly bunch and always happy to chat.
