Anchor1How I got here...

Anchor2Neil Evett - Physiotherapy Manager and AHP Lead

Tell us about your roles.

I am a Physiotherapist with a background in musculo-skeletal therapy. I manage the Physiotherapy Department and also act as Lead to the other Allied Health Professions. I also have a clinical commitment as an Extended Scope Practitioner, working alongside Orthopaedic Surgeons and providing musculo-skeletal triage clinics.

Describe a typical day.

I have a number of roles at the hospital and sit on a number of committees. My umbrella role is really ensuring that physiotherapy and AHP services are provided in the most efficient way possible, ensuring that high standards of care are maintained at all times. With this regard I am involved in many budget meetings and also management meetings concerned with the running of the hospital itself as opposed to just the services I am responsible for. I spend much time developing service provision and also providing support to staff, both clinically and managerially.

My clinical role is involved with triaging mainly spinal and shoulder conditions for surgery. As an Extended Scope Practitioner I am able to request a whole range of tests including x-rays, scans and blood tests to formulate a diagnosis and also provide injections to soft tissues and joints. Part of my role is with North Somerset PCT to provide triage clinics outside of the hospital with the aim of ensuring only those patients who are required to come into hospital to see a Consultant are referred.

My role means that I also liaise with a number of committees, particularly within physiotherapy on a strategic level for the South West to ensure equity of care and to monitor our own service provision against other services in the region.

What do you like the most about your job?

My job is very varied and very busy. I get to meet lots of different people from lots of different disciplines, both clinically and managerially. I gain a great deal of a sense of achievement if something goes well, again both for individual patients but also for staff and development of services. I never stop learning and generally feel that I represent services that are integral to the running of the hospital and feel privileged to be able to contribute.

And the least?

I feel I am a finisher and quite often there is no time in the day to finish all the jobs that I have. I sometimes get frustrated by this.

What did you want to do when you were at school?

Initially I wanted to be a pilot, however I always had an interest in sport and in the back of my mind thought that I might like to do something medically. I therefore went into physiotherapy in the initial instance not knowing exactly what the role was about and have simply stayed in the profession.

How did you get where you are today?

I had to leave college with “A” levels and then trained as a Physiotherapist in Cardiff. Three years later I became a junior grade in Southampton and did all the relevant rotations in a spectrum of medical specialities. I managed to qualify in a number of manipulative techniques on my way. I also early in my career completed a Diploma in Management Studies and also an MSC in Sports Injuries and Rehab. Over the years I also underwent specific training to become an Extended Scope Practitioner and have ended up as one of the Managers in the Trust with a clinical responsibility. I think it is the combination of my clinical qualifications and formal management background that has enabled me to gain the position I have at the present time.

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Anchor3Sally Moore - Acting Occupational Therapy Manager

Tell us about your role

• I assess and treat adults with functional independence needs i.e. people struggling with activities of daily living due to ongoing physical illness, mental health issues or temporary disablement; to ensure safe discharge from hospital.
• I manage my own time and caseloads so have to be organised and able to prioritise my tasks.
▪ I am responsible for managing the Occupational Therapy team and ensuring
Professional and Trust standards are adhered to.
• I work with other health professionals in the care and management of the client group
which leads to a safe discharge from hospital.

Describe a typical day.

There is no such thing as a typical day for an OT manager!!
I arrive at work at 8am and check e-mails and open mail. At 8.30 when the other staff arrive I check they are prepared for the day and have no concerns or issues relating to staffing. If there are issues, I then spend time sorting them out through re-distributing work load throughout the team, or picking up the work load myself. This may then take all day. I assess/treat patients on any ward, depending on need, but mainly focus on acute orthopaedics and pre-op assessment on private suite.

What do you like the most about your job?

Being able to work with the patient and achieve a level of independence that ensures they will be safe at home.

And the least?

Problems with staffing levels and managing of complaints.

What did you want to do when you were at school?

I always wanted to be an OT but maybe not a manager!!!

How did you get where you are today?

I did a diploma in OT, applied for my first job in Hampshire, spent 2 yrs there then moved to WSM and have gradually worked my way through the grades to where I am today.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to go into a similar area of work?

Get as much work experience as you can to figure out if this is really what you want to do. Keep writing those letters and you may be lucky to get some good experience…

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Anchor4Trevor Chacksfield - Facilities Manager

Tell us about your role.

This includes management of the soft facilities within the hospital. This includes cleaning, portering, linen, stores & mailroom, catering for patients and staff and overseeing the onsite residential housing.

Describe a typical day.

I have to be very reactive because of the nature of services I manage. A typical day could be: inspecting wards and kitchens for cleanliness, chairing contract review meetings, presenting red zone absence meetings, attending an operational briefings or speaking to local councillors regarding the standards of the hospital cleanliness. I also am the Estates and Hospital on-call duty Manager out of hours once a month.

What do you like the most about your job?

The variety and diversity of my job. I always plan my day but most often; this is disrupted due to operational matters.

And the least?

I have to attend too many meetings and often take too long discussing issues rather than putting them practice!

What did you want to do when you were at school?

Join the Royal Marines Commandos.

How did you get where you are today?

I left school with very little qualifications however I joined the Marines and had 23 happy years, which taught me that you could achieve anything if you put your mind to it! I was trained to mange situations under extreme mental and physical pressures in all conditions.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to go into a similar area of work?

Practice interview technique! The recruitment is the hardest hurdle to overcome. Once you join an organisation it is up to you to prove how good you really are!

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Anchor5Jo Crinson – Personal Assistant

Tell us about your role.

I am the PA to the Divisional Manager for Children, Young People and Maternity Services (including Sexual Health)

Describe a typical day.

I’ll open and distribute the post, update diaries for the Divisional Manager and Ward Managers, type correspondence and replies for Divisional Manager and Ward Managers and collate the papers for next day's meetings, filing, answering telephone queries and directing them appropriately.

What do you like the most about your job?

All of it!

And the least?

Filing I guess!

What did you want to do when you were at school?

An Air Hostess !!

How did you get where you are today? (what route did you take, courses, qualifications, any wrong career moves/bad jobs etc)

Did a YTS placement at an advertising agency after leaving school which entailed going to typing college where I gained RSA I, II & III, audio typing, speed writing - from there joined a "Big 8" firm of Accountants as Junior Secretary, then promoted to Senior Partner's Secretary - then had a career break to have my children, and then applied for this job whilst on holiday in Cornwall - took the advert with me not expecting to get the job as was an "external" applicant - absolutely thrilled to be told I was successful.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to go into a similar area of work?

Need to be accurate, polite, confidential and be able to work on own initiative as well as being a pro-active member of a team. Enjoy your job and enjoy "looking after" your manager(s). BE HAPPY!!!

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anchor6Gillian Oxley - Head of Speech and Language Therapy

Tell us about your role?

My clinical work is with children, mainly school age, in clinics and schools. I also manage the Children’s and Adult speech and language therapy teams. I work with children with communication difficulties, such as:Learning or hearing difficulties, specific difficulties understanding or using spoken language, difficulties coping with social communication, speech problems arising for cleft palate..
Some speech and language therapists specialise in working with children who stammer, or who have a voice disorder, or eating & drinking problems, but I don’t do that type of work.

Speech and language therapists who work with adult patients, see people who have communication or swallowing problems because of neurological damage after stroke, head injury or because of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis. They also see patients who stammer, or who have voice disorders, or after cancer of the throat or mouth.

Both adult and child clients might need alternative forms of communication (signing or technological aids), and/or support for theirs carers, families, teachers and nursing staff, so speech and language therapists do lots of formal or informal training.

As well as clinical work I manage the 2 teams, a total of 18 therapists, assistants and clerical staff. I develop the services in collaboration with my senior and specialist staff, and with other members of the wider care team such as nurses, doctors, other therapists such as OTs and physios, education and social service staff.

Describe a typical day.

Reading & responding to emails, answering enquiries from patients, families or colleagues, writing papers and reports about management issues, providing statistics about clinical activity, working on personnel issues such as annual leave, training requirements and travel claims, attending management meetings. Then I go into a school to see 4 or 5 children (maybe 2 schools in a day), to review their progress, discuss with their teachers. I will then go back to the office to write up their notes, a report and a speech or language programme for teaching staff to carry out in school and phone the parents. I might attend a multi-professional meeting about a child, to help decide the best way to help the child make progress. Lastly I might see a new child in clinic with his/her parents to take a case history, assess their communication and discuss with parents how best to help the child.

What do you like the most about your job?

Working with a great team of professional, dedicated therapists and clinicians who want to do their best for the children and their families; setting programmes to work with children in school which are done well by teaching staff and I can see the children improve; explaining to parents how to help their child to communicative more effectively.

Management – developing services so that more children and adults can get appropriate speech and language help, putting into place ways of working which are effective and up to date; working with other agencies, maybe outside health to provide therapy and support.

And the least?

Finding out that SLT advice had not been followed. Some of the management paperwork tasks. When insufficient time is given to complete tasks (clinical or management – deadlines too short sometimes).

What did you want to do when you were at school?

To be a missionary and then an Air Hostess! – I was interested in foreign languages.

How did you get where you are today?

I had a year out after A levels, then went to uni to study Speech Therapy for 3 years. I wanted to work with adult patients but my first job included 2 geriatric hospitals on Dartmoor and that put me off, so I have worked with children ever since.

After 20 years as a therapist I had nearly 5 years out of speech and language therapy, but still in the NHS, doing project management and NHS modernisation programmes. At about the same time I did a Certificate of Management Studies course and then a MSc in Healthcare Management. Both were extremely useful and interesting and helped me develop as a whole systems manager as well as for Speech and Language Therapy.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to go into a similar area of work?

Have an open mind about working with children or adult patients – the courses prepare you for both at the moment, but they are very different types of work. Get some experience – paid or unpaid, in schools, nurseries, day care centres, nursing homes etc. Choose a University with a good reputation.

Take an interest in how other professions work so you can see how your bit of patient care fits in with the whole package of care.

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Anchor7Phil Heycock - Head of Financial Services

Describe a typical day.

I start at 8 to 8.30am having either walked the dog or gone to the gym first. I grab a coffee while my computer is getting started and first review e-mails (some will have huge attachments), review outlook tasks and prepare for meetings for that day. I usually spend the first 15-20 minutes trying to plan my work priorities for the day or the week. Each day is different but a good chunk of it is spent at a PC creating spreadsheets and documents to give me information for use by the organisation and its staff or the organisations we work with. More sources of data are internet based now but this is not as much fun as it may sound e.g Department of health guidance, Revenue and customs rules etc.

There are lots of deadlines and interruptions so I need to be well organised and conscious of the time all the time and it is usual to be involved in working on several task at the same time. A good amount of time is also spent on staff management (I have a team of 10 mostly full time staff).I will have meetings with a variety of people and this usually generates more things to do.

The day normally finishes between 5pm and 6pm although I have been known to work on past 11pm at year end!!

What do you like the most about your job?

Completing a task on time and with confidence that the information produced will be of benefit to someone else. I also really enjoy supporting and encouraging others and knowing they are pleased with what they have achieved after being encouraged by me is a fantastic boost to a bad day.

And the least?

Not having enough hours in the day and sometimes having to work without all the information needed.

What did you want to do when you were at school?

I wanted to do sometime with property and thought being an Estate Agent would be cool as they all had company cars. I then thought seriously about being a town planner but didn’t work too hard at college so ended up in banking.

How did you get where you are today?

I took banking exams so progressed from being a cashier to a branch manager in 7 years. I worked in banking for 13 years then joined the NHS where I took AAT and then CIMA qualifications (Chartered Institute of Management Accounting) via part time courses at College and University.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to go into a similar area of work?

Try to get some temp work or work experience in a finance environment in a medium or large sized organisation so you can get an idea of all the different types of work involved . Finance is not just about numbers, it’s a window into how the whole organisation works. Be prepared to ask lots of questions and don’t be afraid to set high goals e.g. say where you want to be in 5 years time.

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Anchor8Lee Collings - Acting Hearing Services Manager

Tell us about your role

I trained and work as an audiologist and I am currently acting up from my usual position of senior Audiologist to cover the Department Manager role.

Describe a typical day

It’s always busy! In addition to the admin which is generated by managing a team and a service I am manage the arranging clinics, finance, waiting list.

Also clinical work involving Hearing assessments, fitting hearing aids, reviewing patients, audiograms for ENT clinics, hearing aid adjustment, repair.

What do you like the most about your job?

Patients, and variety.

And the least?

Not enough hours in the day at present because of waiting list and targets.

What did you want to do when you were at school?

Didn’t have a clue!

How did you get where you are today?

Started by being employed as a student audiologist and doing in service training but the Audiology course is now a 4 year degree course, which includes a year’s work in an audiology department.

After doing 2 years in service training I did a recognised audiology course which gave me my professional qualification. I then gradually became more experienced and became a senior audiologist and now acting manager.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to go into a similar area of work?

You have to like working with people and be prepared to work hard. But you do get a lot of satisfaction from the job.

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