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Carolyn Clover

THROUGH ADVERSITY COMES LEGACY – THE #HELLOMYNAMEIS STORY: Chris Pointon, 13 June 2019

By Previous Seminars

Abstract: This is a very personal, thought-provoking and heart-warming session that will leave you inspired, reflective and overall in awe of such an amazing individual that we were blessed to have as part of healthcare.

My inspiring wife Dr Kate Granger MBE along with myself came up with a social media campaign that has gone on to revolutionise patient care across global healthcare. This session will take you on the journey from the conception of #hellomynameis to how it now fits within healthcare and how Kate’s legacy continues through the work I do and the numerous accolades named after her.

Biography: Hello, my name is Chris Pointon and I am the husband of the late Dr Kate Granger MBE who was a doctor and patient. My wife died in 2016 aged just 34 after 5 years living with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Throughout that time we raised over £250,000 for charity (now at £380,000) and changed global healthcare through a simple campaign we started in 2013 entitled #hellomynameis. Following Kate’s death I continue to promote the campaign through talking at various conferences across the globe and worldwide awareness on social media.

I don’t officially work in healthcare myself and have spent my career of 26 years within retail and logistics with the last 17 years in the home office of a major global retailer. I recently finished a 12 month sabbatical from my career travelling the world raising awareness of the campaign and promoting compassionate care in healthcare and beyond, along with raising vast amounts of money for charity.

Presentation slides available here

HEALTH STATES OF EXCEPTION: THE (INADVERTENT) PRODUCTION OF ‘BARE LIFE’ IN COMPLEX CARE TRANSITIONS: Justin Waring Professor in Organisational Sociology at Nottingham University Business School, 9 May 2019

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Abstract: A growing number of reports and research studies show that people discharged from hospital often experience a sense of abandonment and stigmatisation, and that they all too often receive delayed, inappropriate or unsafe care. In many ways it can seem that these people are seen as less important or valuable to the care system. This paper draws upon the work of Giorgio Agamben to understand how the social organisation of care transitions can reduce people to their ‘bare’ life thereby making possible harmful and degrading treatment. The concept of ‘bare’ life is derived from classical Greek and Roman law, and describes a ‘life’ that is deprived or stripped of the safeguards and protections that are usually accorded to citizens in the form of a ‘qualified’ life.

The findings of a two-year ethnographic study are analysed to show how some people experience hospital discharge as a vulnerable, inhumane and unsafe process, as found in their lack of involvement in care planning, delayed discharge from hospital and inappropriate and unsafe follow-on care. This is shown to stem from the way patients are constituted as ‘unknown’ and ‘ineligible’ and, in turn, professionals become ‘not responsible’ for care during and after the discharge processes. The social production of ‘bare life’ is found to be an inadvertent feature of patients ‘falling between gaps’ of different professional practices and cultures within a complex care system.

Biography: I completed my doctorate in Sociology at the University of Nottingham (2004) on ‘The social construction and control of medical errors’. I am now Professor in Organisational Sociology at Nottingham University Business School. In 2013, I founded the Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership & Learning (CHILL), which leads the Business School’s research on health systems improvement, and in the same year was awarded a Health Foundation Improvement Science Fellowship to undertake research on major system change. I am currently Associate Dean for Research within the Business School, and also the Lead for the ‘Implementing Evidence and Improvement’ Theme for NIHR CLAHRC East Midlands, and the Lead for the ‘Safer Care Systems and Transitions’ Theme for the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.

Presentation slides available here.

IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH IN PATIENT SAFETY: THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR IMPROVING PATIENT CARE? Professor Nick Sevdalis, 29 March 2019

By Previous Seminars

Abstract: Patient safety has established itself as a multidisciplinary research arena for over 2 decades. During this time, a number of high profile safety-improvement interventions have been developed and evaluated, with some showing very promising results in scientific trials and other studies. Yet, descriptive evidence and anecdotal accounts from the frontline of healthcare delivery suggest that some of these interventions have struggled to gain adequate traction within routine health services – such that their expected positive impact on patient outcomes has not always been consistent.

In this seminar I will explore some of the above barriers, with specific examples from acute healthcare. I will offer an overview of the basic tenets of implementation science and reflect on their application within the current evidence base for patient safety. I will conclude the seminar with a call for reflection and debate with the audience regarding the need for further patient safety studies that evaluate clinical effectiveness, compared to studies that focus on implementation effectiveness instead – arguing that the latter are now more timely than ever.

Biography: A psychologist by training, Nick is Director of the Centre for Implementation Science at King’s College London, Academic Director of the Quality Improvement and Implementation Science Clinical Academic Group within King’s Health Partners, Chief Editor of BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning and Associate Editor of Implementation Science. His research is situated at the interface of patient safety, improvement and implementation sciences. For the past 15 years, Nick has been studying perioperative and cancer pathways, aiming to address human factors in care delivery; to understand barriers and drivers of implementing and sustaining evidence-based improvement interventions; and to increase capacity to undertake safety and quality improvement at the frontline of healthcare delivery. His research has been disseminated in over 300 publications and chapters to-date.

Presentation slides available here

REDUCING HAZARDOUS PRESCRIBING AND IMPROVING PATIENT SAFETY IN PRIMARY CARE: Professor Darren Ashcroft, 28 February 2019

By Previous Seminars

Abstract: Improving patient safety in healthcare settings is a major concern globally. Medicines are the most commonly used clinical intervention in healthcare, and errors involving the prescribing, dispensing, administration and monitoring steps of medication use are common. Such medication errors can prolong hospital stay and lead to significant patient morbidity. Given this, the World Health Organisation has recently identified ‘Medication Without Harm’ as the priority for their third Global Patient Safety Challenge which aims to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50% globally in the next 5 years.  In primary care settings, we have been working to address these challenges focused on reducing hazardous prescribing as part of the work programme within the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC). The seminar will focus on the interventional studies underway, lessons learnt and plans for the future.

Biography: Darren holds the Foundation Professorship in Pharmacoepidemiology and is Head of the Drug Usage and Pharmacy Practice Group at the University of Manchester. He is the Deputy Director of the NIHR Greater Manchester PSTRC, in which he also leads the medication safety research theme. He is also a member of the Pharmacovigilance Expert Advisory Group (PEAG) at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

As a pharmacist and pharmaco-epidemiologist, his major research interests and teaching include: methods to improve the appropriateness and safety of drug prescribing and drug taking, and quantification of the risks and benefits of drug therapies. He has led extensive research programmes focused on patient safety in a wide range of healthcare settings (hospitals, general practices, and pharmacies), with particular expertise in understanding and improving medication safety.

Presentation slides available here