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”Turning something that was filling me with dread into structured, sensible meaningful work”

Andy Holdstock, a registrar working in the A&E department of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, shared his story of how attending the Silver Quality Improvement training course was so impactful to his work.

Quality Improvement Projects are an expected part of Andy’s work. However, he has never received any training before doing the bronze training online, and then applying to do the silver course. As a consequence of the training, Andy looked at the number of patients receiving a pain score which is low in his department. This score is important because it enables the healthcare team to implement and monitor appropriate analgesics.

Andy says he is now able to take a structured approach to developing a strategy to improve the use of pain scores in A&E. Rather than the temptation to make it a mandatory part of care, he has looked to understand why staff don’t complete the pain score and engaged the team in ways of ‘making the right thing the easy thing to do’. Andy is using his silver QI training to improve the proportion of patients in A&E, who are given a pain score, and treated with analgesics accordingly.

Andy Attended the Improvement Academy Quality Improvement training day, funded through the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN on 19th November 2018.

Tony Jamieson, Director of Transformation and Improvement at the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN said: We are committed to the systematic and systemic adoption of Quality Improvement science. I am really pleased to see the Improvement mindset we promote making a real difference in Airedale Hospital. The work we deliver through our Improvement Academy is really at the fore-front of mobilising a social movement for improvement across health and care.”