The Day the World Changed

In September 2001, I walked through the door to the University of Central England (as it was at the time, now Birmingham City University), I was about to start my diploma course to be a registered nurse. This was symbolic for me, moving from a Medical Assistant in the Royal Navy, to becoming a nurse […]

My Journey with NatSSIPs 2

I can be quite honest and say I have a love hate relationship with the National Standards for Safer Invasive Procedures (NatSSIPs). I love to hate them. They have become the bane of my life and something that I never thought I would be involved in. Let me paint a picture, during my MA training […]

All I said is I can help…..what more could it mean?

My Journey with Thematic Analysis For many years I have thought that we could make a bigger impact on patient safety if we could examine low harm events or near misses in greater detail. Historically, they have often been left to local areas to investigate and close them. With all the time pressures and demands […]

Ready, Steady, and Procrastinate

Motivation The last couple of months have seen several changes in my life, nothing dramatic. I went to get a repeat of my medication and was informed that I needed to have a health check up with the GP. No drama, I thought, never had too much hassle with doc, no major health scares. So […]

Navigating NHS Changes: What Lies Ahead?

So, there is a famous phrase that is often bandied about and it goes something like this , “those that fail to learn the lessons of the past, are condemned to repeat them”. In fact the actual quote accredited to George Santayana is more damning and it is “those that cannot remember the past are […]

My best Mate

This is a very different blog to my normal. A little more personal, an insight into me and a very dear friend. A couple of days ago, I received a message from my oppo that I did not want to receive. It simply said he did not have much time. How do you answer that […]

Increasing health inequalities

Welcome and goodbye to “Awful April” as it has been dubbed. With household bills increasing at a formidable rate, taxes increasing, although the government still tell us they have not raised them, instead they have not increased the threshold for the taxes. At some point they may stop treating the electorate like idiots, but I […]

Learning from other Industries

I wonder how many times those of us working in patient safety or human factors in health care have heard this phrase, ” we need to learn from the aviation industry”. I am not sure that we can entirely transpose the safety from one industry to another. Let’s face it, recent events show that things […]

Patient Safety Management Network Symposium 2024

I sit writing this the day after the symposium, physically, I am tired, in fact knackered, would be a better adjective. My body needs rest but my brain cannot stop. I am basking in the glow of a job well done. Although, my brain is now active with what next? But not just that, the […]

Back to Running

So, after a few years and several kilos (ok, several 10s of kilos) gained I am considering getting back into my running. A few weeks back I took my youngest daughter to a swimming meet, so we were in a different city, in a hotel and after dropping her off each day, limited activity – […]