Masterclass 7 — Career Progression Copyright © Healthcare Quality Quest, 2013

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

Career options Do you want to stay in clinical audit and progress? Do you want to move out of clinical audit and progress? Do you want to do something else?

Options for staying in clinical audit and moving on — Clinical audit staff Role options Clinical audit or Clinical effectiveness or Clinical governance or Quality improvement or Patient experience or Patient safety/ risk management Assistant Facilitator/ Analyst Specialist Practitioner Head Specialty options

More options Contexts Clinical audit and Clinical effectiveness and Clinical governance and Quality improvement and Patient experience and Patient safety/ risk management Clinical service or division or Provider unit within an organization or Provider whole organization or Commissioner or Other Scope of responsibility

Options for staying in clinical audit and moving on — Clinical audit leads (clinicians) Role options Clinical audit and Clinical effectiveness and Clinical governance and Quality improvement and Patient experience and Patient safety/ risk management Service lead Specialty lead Directorate lead Associate medical/ clinical director (for quality and safety) Medical/ clinical director Scope of role

Depends on your education and professional training and background Service manager Project manager Independent auditor or assessor Teacher Researcher Options for moving out of clinical audit altogether

What do I want to be when I grow up? How to decide

Specialist practitioner in quality and safety in health care Manager Teacher Researcher Other ??? Options for moving out of clinical audit altogether

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

Strengths needed Quality and safety Mastery of: Valid and reliable measurement of patient care Valid analysis of data Quality improvement and risk management tools and techniques Being a change agent Facilitative interaction with clinical teams Leadership Etc.

Characteristics of people who are successful in clinical audit (and related fields) — tick those that apply to you Logical thinker Can deal with a lot of technical detail Fastidious about detail and presentation of information Enjoy working with a variety of clinical staff in different professions and specialties Can explain technical ideas and sensitive issues to a variety of clinical and managerial staff Can handle data and not be intimidated by statistical analysis Can facilitate and influence people to make decisions based on evidence Patient in working with people (and the system)

Management Mastery of: Establishing and driving implementation of goals and objectives Working through people to achieve goals Managing resources — people, time and money Monitoring and acting on performance Leadership Etc.

Characteristics of people who are successful in management — tick those that apply Can think of and appraise options for ways forward Can manage resources effectively Can see and maintain oversight of ‘the big picture’ Enjoy working with a variety of people in different roles and levels Can explain vision and goals and motivate people to achieve them Can handle competitive issues and ideas simultaneously Can influence and motivate people at all levels Can be objective about monitoring performance Patient in working with people (and the system)

How to act on your strengths and weaknesses Have you decided on your direction? If no, can you arrange a secondment to try out a different direction? If you don’t have the package of strengths and characteristics needed, how can you acquire them? If yes, do you have the package of strengths needed?

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Positive attitudes toward — Doing the right things the right way every time Explaining when things being asked of you are ‘wrong’ and why they won’t be effective Actually achieving better and safer patient care — not just talking about it Working with teams to achieve improvements in care Getting involved to actively help

Do you have any attitudes about work that could impede being able to demonstrate that you are a ‘best practitioner’? ‘I don’t have time to do clinical audit the right way’ ‘Anybody can do a clinical audit; it doesn’t require any specialized knowledge or skill’ ‘I don’t think I could explain to someone who is my senior that what we are doing is not best practice’ ‘I am a junior and have to do what my supervisor directs [and it may not be best practice]’ ‘There are too many clinical audits to do them properly’

What’s involved in shifting attitudes? Believing that there is an expert way to do clinical audit and that you want to be expert Having the confidence to explain best practice in clinical audit Making a commitment to actually achieving better and safer patient care Sticking with teams until they demonstrate improvements Putting yourself ‘out there’ — being visible and not in a far away office Make your plan

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

NOT The activities I have carried out The jobs I have had The reports I have written The workshops I have provided The meetings I have attended BUT The types of IMPROVEMENTS I have helped teams to achieve – with indications of the statistical evidence Experience — create your own evidence of your effectiveness

How to get experience Stick with a clinical audit from the beginning to evidence of improvement Observe other staff working through the entire clinical audit process Work on a clinical audit with a mentor on clinical audit Do a clinical audit from beginning to evidence for an assigned audit Do a clinical audit with a willing clinician as practise

How can you gain experience in being a ‘best practitioner’? Work with colleagues in clinical audit? Work with a willing clinician? Work on your own with a team? Work with a mentor? Be clear about what’s needed to be a best practitioner

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

A personal portfolio is a document that includes: A ‘show and tell’ resume — a sophisticated scrapbook A summary of your career to date Your skills, qualifications and qualities Evidence of what you have achieved in work Testimonials, appraisals and other forms of personal feedback

What a personal portfolio could look like A loose-leaf binder with a see-through cover A cover that includes your name with an appropriate background or graphics Sheet protectors or plastic sleeves to preserve important documents in the portfolio — no holes through the documents Index tabs or title pages to divide sections A manageable size No page numbers The same font, font size and style for all headings A summary statement for each example

What a personal portfolio could look like Table of contents Summary Basic skills — communication skills (writing and speaking), mathematics, organizing, and other relevant skills Specialist skills — designing, problem solving, decision making, etc Personal qualities — strengths Experience — job history Education – training and qualifications

A curriculum vitae (CV) is a summary including your: The ‘look’ of your CV can sell you for an interview — or not Name and contact information Educational and academic backgrounds Relevant work experience Publications, presentations, awards and honours Professional associations and licenses, as applicable Any other information relevant to the position you are applying for

Preparing for the job interview Learn as much about the job and the expectations about the job as possible in advance Match your portfolio to the expectations about the job Prepare a response to questions on any part of the job description Rehearse presenting yourself and answering questions with a friend Look the part for the interview — dress yourself as a professional

How can you start preparing Prepare a personal portfolio Create or polish your CV Practise for interviews

Your strengths and weaknesses and how to act Career options and how to decide on your direction Attitudes, behaviours and skills needed Experience needed Personal portfolio and CV and preparing for interviews

Masterclass 7 — Career Progression Copyright © Healthcare Quality Quest, 2013