Our very own Dr Sue Crossland is the new President for the Society of Acute Medicine.

Sue has been deputy to our own Dr Nick Scriven for the past two years, and is already hitting the ground running. Comms asked Sue some questions about her role and also about why she thinks Schwartz Rounds are important for colleagues here at CHFT.

She will be speaking at the next Round tomorrow in the CRH Learning Centre (lunch served from 12midday, and the Round starts at 12.30pm). Schwartz Rounds are a safe, relaxed meeting where people share their stories of what it’s like to work at CHFT

How do you see your role and what do you hope to achieve?

"I see my role as standing up for the care of the patients we admit, and helping our members achieve the best care for patients admitted under Acute Internal Medicine. We are currently involved in National projects around Sepsis, Same Day Emergency Care and the Emergency Care Standards, so watch this space!"

What are the challenges you see in your Presidency?

"The challenges of the Presidency, unfortunately remain the same:rising admissions, increasing complexity of multimorbid patients, social care struggling with capacity. We work hard with the Government and other policy makers and stakeholders to try and improve acute care for all."

Any funny moments in your career?

"Funny thing-for those who know me, they will have seen the (unsuccessful) pyramid building at the HSJ awards with team Acute Floor from CRH and Helen Barker. Well, just to say, our SAM team building pyramids are excellent (and stable!) and I am expecting the Acute Floor team's pyramid building to improve drastically as we are nominated for more and more awards!"

You are speaking at the next Schwartz Round tomorrow (Fri 24th Jan) - have you attended a Round before?

"I haven't attended a Schwartz Round at CHFT before, but did express to the Board a couple of years ago as part of my new DME (Director of Medical Education) role that I was keen to see Schwartz Rounds within the Trust- and luckily, work was already underway to start them, so I am really glad they have started to happen".

What will your own story cover?

"From my story this week (which is about 'when you feel that your best isn't good enough'), I hope colleagues will think about challenges and difficulties from a different perspective, perhaps understand and challenge our own biases, and perhaps also realise that there is never going to be 'best' but only 'better'."

Happy 1st Birthday to CHFT's Schwartz Rounds!

Schwartz Rounds are a safe, relaxed meeting where people share their stories of what it’s like to work at CHFT, and they're part of our Health & Wellbeing recipe in The Cupboard.

CHFT's first Round a year ago on the 24th January 2019 was ‘A patient I’ll never forget’ and we've held five more throughout the year.

Working with The Point of Care Foundation, we’ve found everyone benefits when colleagues get together and relationships are made a priority in the workplace.  Colleagues have said that Rounds helped them gain insight into the working lives of their colleagues. Both

Clinical and non-clinical staff have indicated that they value a reflective space, irrespective of their background.

A wide range of colleagues from junior doctors, nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants, ward clerks, domestics and administration/clerical professions have attended. In total, 148 colleagues have attended a Schwartz Round with 34% of attendees describing them as ‘exceptional’ and a further 43% described them as ‘excellent’. Some of the comments received from attendees include:

• ‘Excellent, informative, moving, compassionate, caring and helpful.
• A very good opportunity for all members of hospital team to reflect on what a good job the team here does.  I think getting more people here will really help with hospital spirit.
• Very powerful how compassionate everyone was - not just the panel but the audience too.
• Found it very emotional.  From goose bumps in the beginning to nearly in tears by the last speaker.  Felt too emotional to speak up.  Made me remember all my amazing mentors along the way.
• The problems are different but the battles are the same.
• Very insightful and made me aware that I'm not alone in feeling the way I do.
• Listening to others speaking about their experiences has really helped to reassure me in my role.’

Take a look at the subjects and dates coming up here, and why not make a date in your diary to come along? No booking necessary.