A busy start
It’s a Thursday morning, ten past eight, my day starts with the school run for our two teenage boys and I’ve just dropped them off. The kids have auditions for roles in the school musical performance this afternoon and are both excited and nervous and I can’t say that doesn’t affect me. I’ve got a 30-minute drive to get into the professional spirit.
This is my admin/SPA morning, I’m part time (3.75 days) and some sessions are flexible. The NETA (Northern Endoscopy Teaching Academy) team is coming for their very first visit to our unit. As one of the senior endoscopists and endo trainers, I was asked to join by our training lead who is a nurse by background.
I’ve just been external faculty again for a course run by the NETA boss a couple of weeks ago. There’s our outgoing endoscopy matron who knew me when I couldn’t scope yet, the new matron who I already worked with when she was still an endo nurse in the room. I’ve known the present NETA research fellow since years from our involvement in undergrad education.
Lastly, some of the admin staff have come without whom none of the service would ever work. For me, this is a great meeting where everyone has an equal voice, everyone brings with them their skills and a shared vision to improve endo training in our region.
Leadership and management role
I peel off at 11am to join my OSM (operational service manager) and my main secretary for a Teams meeting. Northumbria Trust is vast and what a blessing Teams has been in that respect! I’m clinical lead for the lumps and bumps service and we’re working on streamlining the referral process and access points to the service. I’m proud I’ve been one of the first, years ago, to push for taking minor surgery as far as possible out of theatres and into treatment rooms – a much better experience for the patients – and pretty cost-effective for the trust.
Preparing for SAS week
Afterwards I’ve got a bit of time to deal with the daily emails, then even have time for lunch before hotdesking again in the endoscopy office for a quick SAS core group Teams catch-up that the SAS tutor Zoe set up to coordinate our SAS week preparations. I inform her that I invited the BMA IRO for our formal ‘meet and greet’ event with the management.
As a SAS advocate, I hope to raise our profile during the week by going on ward and department ‘walk abouts’. The education admin promises to provide me with the details of all postgrad teaching times to utilise. Zoe is amazing, so I will have goodies like ‘SAS week’ stickers and ‘SAS by choice’ pens with me to hand out.
Breaking barriers and building bridges
Time’s up – staff poke their head in to tell me the first patient is ready to go on the endo list. This is a service polypectomy list, but a nurse endoscopist colleague needs a few more supervised polypectomies signed off, so will join. If we don’t help each other – who else will?
I’ve got involved with the complex polypectomy MDT as my field of interest which made me much more visible across specialties, but as a SAS doctor I don’t get necessarily the same respect as some of my consultant colleagues which for me is very much an ongoing process of fighting for cultural change. So, in theory all cases should have come through an MDT discussion to ensure adequate time allocation.
No such luck in practice today and the list drags onto overtime when we find a lot more polyps than expected. I got a few ‘Thank yous’ from the patients ‘you’re a goodd’un’ one of them says and my colleague got some hands-on time, both make me feel happy. And so far, I’ve got enough goodwill with the staff to be let off for the overtime today.
Family time
I get home for just before 7. The kids have been collected from school at 6pm and then fed by my husband. There’s food for me and half an hour time to chat – the auditions went well, what a relief – before there’s the senior martial arts class for my younger son starting at 8pm. That’s too late for my early morning bird husband, so I’ve got taxi duties – thermos with tea and book ready for an hour and a bit of ‘me’ time, nowadays outside in the car.