Caring with Compassion ECHO

Why Caring with Compassion ECHO?

We have been considering running an ECHO community of practice to stimulate curiosity and conversation across our multi-disciplinary working relationships and improve collaboration and reflective learning between our partners in Primary, Secondary and Social Care with a focus on our workplace culture and “Caring with Compassion”.

Since the publication of the Sturrock report in 2019, there has been much work ongoing within NHS Highland to look at how we develop a supportive culture. Not all of this work has been visible, and an inevitability of trying to influence culture change is that it takes years, and will impact in different ways and at a different pace across such a large dynamic organisation.

It is important to consider what we mean by culture and what we can all do to influence change. Culture may be considered as the combination of the values and beliefs that characterise organisations. This is important because we all bring our own values and beliefs to work, so we all contribute to that workplace culture, and consequently we can all influence it.

So how we align our values, how we – each and every one of us - behave matters – both for ourselves, our colleagues and our patients. Caring with Compassion ECHO aims to raise awareness and promoting engagement through curiosity, conversation, and reflective learning, to enable a supportive and inclusive compassionate culture across the organisation amongst all job families and all work regions in NHS Highland and the A&B HSCP.

Aim

This ECHO network aims to bring together colleagues who experience complexity in working with patients, families and professionals with regard to issues around compassion - considering the importance of being compassionate towards colleagues, enabling a compassionate organisation to enable compassionate care for our patients and their families. The group will form a community of practice focussed on hearing from subject experts and looking at real anonymised cases.

An introduction to the sessions will take place on 21^st March 23 at 1:00pm with the opportunity to discuss the format and proposed curriculum and how the learning community will run.

Who is it for?

This programme is primarily aimed at GP’s, secondary care practitioners, nurses and social care staff, but all NHS Highland colleagues are welcome.

When will the sessions take place?

We anticipate the community of practice will meet 4 to 5 times with the first session taking place around April. Proposed presentations will focus on;

Compassion – Michael A. West CBE, Professor of Organisational Psychology, Lancaster University, Senior Visiting Fellow, The King’s Fund, and Emeritus Professor, Aston University. He has authored, edited and co-edited 20 books and has published more than 200 articles in scientific and practitioner publications on teamwork, innovation, leadership, and culture, particularly in healthcare. Michael was appointed a CBE in 2020 for services to compassion and leadership in healthcare.

Spaces for listening – Brigid Russel, an executive coach and organisation development consultant based in Scotland with over 20 years’ experience of working with individuals and teams on improving personal, team and organisational effectiveness. She is passionate about the impact of coaching in enabling individuals to realise their potential as well as in supporting organisations to develop their capacity to deliver strategic aims.

Civility Saves Lives – Dr Chris Turner, a consultant in emergency medicine, working in a tertiary trauma centre in the West Midlands. He feels passionately about the importance of civility in medicine and has been working hard to increase awareness of it’s impact. He is the co-founder of Civility Saves Lives, a group of healthcare workers who share the evidence base behind why the best teams respect and value each other, and why this leads to the best outcomes for both staff and patients.