Clinical leadership & professional development

This month, we welcome our annual arrival of newly graduated doctors who begin working in a clinical environment, rotating throughout the different departments across the Trust.

At Hampshire Hospitals, we are extremely lucky to share acute medical consultant, Professor Matt Inada-Kim, with NHS England where he is National Clinical Director for Infection management and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Matt also holds an honorary role at the UK Health Security Agency.

While it has been some while since Matt’s days as a postgraduate, here he provides some valuable insight into developing a medical career, with specific focus on leadership and the value that a year spent in the US as part of the Harkness Fellowship delivered.  

According to Matt, the UK’s medical profession hosts extraordinary individuals who, through years of dedication, achieve professional brilliance yet relatively few into positions of leadership.

In his view, greater focus on clinical leadership would serve to enrich careers and the wider NHS; according to Matt “We do not have enough high-profile clinical leaders relative to America or other countries, and these are often working in urban teaching hospitals. To address this, we must nurture and encourage leadership in all ethnicities and in those working in diverse clinical environments including the community and district general hospitals.”

“McGill ward at Hampshire Hospitals has always been an melting pot of culturally diverse clinicians, that sharing ideas from around the world, collaborating and pulling together  to produce a kind, supportive and tolerant working environment focused around optimal patient care. It has been such a nurturing environment, staffed by incredible colleagues who are always seeking ways to improve the patient experience and outcomes.”

As Matt points out, decades spent providing clinical care is extremely demanding; promoting pathways into leadership facilitates retention of valuable experience and seniority, something that is vital because “if you look at the long-term workforce plan published by the NHS, it is wholly dependent on having enough senior clinicians to train and mentor the incoming cohorts.”

Putting aside the obvious incentives, there are other significant benefits to shifting the balance towards acquiring specific leadership skill set and taking a different approach to providing healthcare, “It is about a desire to influence on a bigger scale.”

“In a clinical position, you treat one patient at a time and can make a massive difference to that individual patient's life.

“But if you develop a health policy or a clinical guideline that is taken up locally, regionally, nationally or globally, and you could be improving outcomes for millions of people.”  I have been very fortunate to be able to contribute to the national and global healthcare improvements. 

For Matt, leadership begins by engaging clinicians at the earliest stages in their career to inspire them and demonstrate the art of the possible.  Speaking from personal experience, he believes that gaining clinical experience needs to be the priority and then giving thought to quantifiably improving the system locally: “What's going to improve the safety of my shift? What can improve the flow? What can improve the safety of us taking blood tests and looking at the results, how can we improve the appropriateness of jobs for the medical team out of hours? Really small tweaks can make a massive difference.”

In 2011, Matt spent a year in the US as part of the Harkness Fellowship, where he gained unparalleled insight into the value of leadership training as well as the overall benefits it delivers. Through the Fellowship, he spent time at Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Business school, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Explaining his own leadership progression, Matt says, “I had just returned from the US and I was finding my feet, I wasn’t in a position of leadership at HHFT but I answered an e-mail from Celia Ingham Clark, who was the medical director for effectiveness at NHS England, around preventing, assessing, treating, improving (through local audit and simulation training) and measuring sepsis.

“Celia was intrigued by my response. She came down to Winchester to visit my unit, and then asked me to become specialist advisor on her national sepsis programme.

“That is how my national trajectory began. And it was really on the back of a constructive email response to a national approach to treating sepsis. It was an extension of the earlier questions: how  can I improve patient outcomes and the healthcare experience for patients and clinicians alike?”

Importantly, Matt recognises that professional growth in this area may not be for everyone but advocates exploring leadership opportunities: “Start with a coach or mentor who can guide your personal development and provide guidance if you have an interest in leadership or improvement. I had the good fortune to be coached by Dr Roberta Parnaby, an eminent local microbiologist, who was a very supportive mentor in my development.

“If it's not your bag, it's not your bag and there'll be other things - this is not necessarily the only way in healthcare. Some people don't like this at all.

“But those with an interest at tweaking the system to make it better are a badly needed group of individuals, so nurture that by starting small and keep going. People do notice. And you develop a skill set over time, both in terms of how you communicate with people and how you influence, and in how you implement, improve, evaluate and analyse.”

When asked the art of being a good leader, Matt says “Understand your strengths, recognise your limitations.” Wise words.