AQuA Lived Experience Affiliate Starts Nursing Training

The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is delighted to share news that Carl O’Loughlin, one of our Lived Experience Affiliates, will be taking his first step into nursing as he begins his training to become a Mental Health nurse at the University of Chester in February 2018.

Carl O'Loughlin, Lived Experience Affiliate

Carl, who started his career training to be a Chartered Accountant, has worked alongside our staff and members for a number of years, to help design our programmes and offers, and ensure patient experience is at the heart of our work. To support him during his studies, Carl has also been awarded one of the prestigious Margaret Parkinson Scholarship’s from the Royal College of Nursing Foundation.

Speaking on the news, Carl said:

“I am absolutely delighted to have been offered a place to begin my Mental Health Nursing degree. I am passionate about mental health care and I want to use my own personal lived experience of severe mental illness to try and make a difference to others suffering similar problems.

“My 'lived experience' roles at the Advancing Quality Alliance, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and CLARCH North West Coast have provided me with invaluable experience and have certainly been the driving force behind me wanting to become a mental health nurse.

“I am also extremely proud and honoured to have been awarded a Margaret Parkinson Scholarship from the Royal College of Nursing Foundation which will support me throughout the 3 years of the course.”

Paul Greenwood, Mental Health Improvement Advisor, said:

“We’re really pleased for Carl and wish him all the best as he takes his first step into nursing. It is a pleasure to work alongside him as part of our Lived Experience Panel as he brings such a wealth of experience to our work, both from his previous career as an accountant and through his own personal experience of mental health.

“We’re delighted that the work with us inspired him to take this decision, and I know he’ll have a lot to offer when he qualifies in the years to come.”

Carl will continue to work with us through the Lived Experience Panel throughout his training. To find out more about the panel, please visit our website, or contact Paul.Greenwood@srft.nhs.uk.

WATCH - Whole System Flow – Pecha Kucha Style

We’re pleased to bring you an exciting ‘Pecha Kucha’ video sharing some of our work and learning around Whole System Flow, presented by our Flow Programme Facilitator Scott Gregory. 

Scott Gregory, Flow Programme Facilitator

What is a 'Pecha Kucha'? It’s Japanese for ‘chit-chat’, and used to describe a fast-paced and concise presentation where 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, with a total run-time of six minutes 40 seconds.

On the back of our 18-month flow discovery programme with The Health Foundation, Scott shares some of our key learning from this, including some do’s and don’ts to successful flow, as well how this has evolved into our new 2017/18 Flow – Improving System Pathways programme with members.

Watch his presentation here

Scott adds:

“Since starting our initial work with The Health Foundation, we’ve really learnt a lot about flow and the many complexities of improving this in practice, and how it often means different things depending on your role and setting.

“Whilst it was quite a challenge to condense so much of this into a Pecha Kucha presentation, it also helped to keep it to our key learning points and what we think is really useful to members.

“We’re now looking to build on and test this work further with members across three pilot systems in Liverpool, Bolton, and Wigan hope to share how some of these findings can help improve care and outcomes for patients across our members and wider partners.”

Feel free to share your thoughts on the presentation via Twitter at @AQuA_NHS, or with Scott directly via @SG_AQuA.

For more information on Flow, please contact out Wendy Lewis, Flow Lead, on Wendy.Lewis@srft.nhs.uk.