Please introduce yourself, your job title, how long you've been in your current role, and how long you've worked at HHFT?
Hi, I’m Sal Wright, the Quality Improvement lead for the Medicine Division at HHFT.
I briefly supported the HHFT Improvement Team in 2020 as a project manager prior to accepting an offer in my current team. I have a little clinical nursing experience, and several years of improving organisation capability across private, public, and not-for-profit sectors before joining the Trust in 2020.
Away from work I enjoy the outdoors, I’m a keen photographer and cook. I currently live in the east of Surrey with my #crackerdog, Eva.
How do you explain your role in the QI team to those that may be unfamiliar with Quality Improvement?
Highly effective multi-disciplinary teams have Improvement at the heart of everything they do. Overall, our roles exist to support the delivery of the improvement strategy by building the capability of our people to make patient care better.
Different people will choose to approach this in different ways - I highly value taking a whole team approach by helping senior leaders, middle managers and front-line staff colleagues assess where they are; then help them develop the QI, non-clinical and non-operational skills, behaviours, and mindset needed to achieve continuous improvement.
I am an improvement business partner, a change manager, an organisational and leadership development coach. Our Improvement strategy brings together the best of these worlds - I love what I do.
How did you end up where you are now? What has your career journey looked like up to this point?
Slightly unusually, I chose to work over attending University after my schooling. I took my time to become an experienced organisational change coach by way of oceanographic research, community development, mentoring programmes, and consultancy in the tourism sector. In 2004 I moved hemispheres, continents, countries, and cultures from Cape Town. Then continued building operational and leadership resilience across EMEA.
What have been a highlight for you at work recently?
I walk through every door which opens to me not knowing what I will find. I feel particularly grateful, therefore, for the quality and trusting relationships which have developed over two years with senior leaders and front-line medics, nursing and other clinical teams in the division I support.
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?
Quality Improvement lifts the scientific lid on useful tips, tools, and techniques to help you bring the best of yourself to understand problems work sometimes throws up; and then helps you to try out ways to work together differently over time with others, using the principles of marginal gains.
If you’re not sure where to start, or not sure whether what you’re seeing could be improved, do get in touch with me; our Academy or through the network of QI Gold Coaches
