The ever changing NHS and the ever changing ME

The NHS itself is forever changing, and as the ‘future of the NHS’ we have to change with it whether we feel we are ready or not. Healthcare is heading towards the use of technology and key developments in Clinical Decision Systems, Electronic Health Records, Patient Portals and Wearable health trackers are but a few of the advances the NHS is currently considering and some trusts are even delivering. Modern society is forever changing and developing, and the NHS must follow if it wants to keep up.

New advances will not be without their challenges and opposition. One major issue with utilizing technology in the NHS is that in the outside world, technology adapts to the consumer whereas in health, we ask the consumer to conform to the system already in place.

This topic really highlights one of the most important points of the scheme – “Patient-Centered Care”.  So as we develop as an organization we must start thinking more and more about what our patients really want and need – but to complete these changes we will require major transformation to the current system. But can the rate of change the NHS is able to achieve keep up with the outside world?

As future leaders in healthcare, we have to be the ones to drive the change and pave the way for future changes to the current system. To some this may sound daunting, and that’s because it is – it’s a difficult but necessary step.

While helping out with the Interviews in Leeds last week, one candidate asked me…

“How are we supposed to know what to do or how to do it? I don’t understand how we go from being graduates to managers with such a level of responsibility.”

In response to that I would say that during the application process, the scheme and post-scheme you will find that you are pushing yourself further than you’ve ever known you were capable. Other people have asked me how they would cope with managing the work, the study and all the other moments in between and my answer to that is, you just will.

Now I know that sounds like a terrible response, but I think we often underestimate our abilities until we’re thrown in the deep end and its sink or swim.

The scheme is the perfect opportunity to push yourself, to see who you are as a person and who you can be in the future. From day one on the scheme you are a manager. You are a manager who has the opportunity that no other NHS employee really has and that is to brush shoulders with some of the most senior people in your trust and the NHS in general. You have responsibilities, your own workload and the needs of others to meet, all while keeping the patient at the center of everything you do. I think I speak for most other trainees when I say that we all suffered a little with imposter syndrome because, in the beginning, no one really knows what they’re doing but orientation and the first few weeks on the job are the perfect opportunity to find your footing and build some confidence. For me personally, the best thing about the scheme so far is that I’ve discovered more about myself over these past few months than I ever have. I’ve done so many things that I could never have comprehended this time last year and I think I am on the way to developing the skills necessary to lead changes – but I admit I still have a very long way to go.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek – Barack Obama