17 October 2022
The successful candidates for our new leadership programme came together last week for one of four face-to-face modules at Ashridge House in Hertfordshire.
The Future Leaders training programme is a 12-month fully funded course by The British Society for Rheumatology (BSR). The programme will help candidates address critical problems in the speciality by developing an improvement or change project that will make a difference in the lives of patients with rheumatology conditions.
The participants are 18 professionals from across the region coming together to represent rheumatology at a national level and change the way services are delivered to patients.
The first cohort of the Future Leaders programme is being delivered in partnership with Hult EF Corporate Education. The group represents the entire rheumatology multidisciplinary team, including nurses, physiotherapists, consultants, trainees, occupational therapists and specialty doctors.
Ali Rivett, BSR CEO, said: “The development of this programme underpins BSRs mission to support members throughout their careers and champion the specialty as a whole.
“We want to encourage the next generation into rheumatology by helping our members to innovate and improve practice. There has never been a rheumatology-specific leadership programme to help provide the skills, experience, and confidence to influence how services are delivered.
“We hope by investing in the leaders of tomorrow we will be investing in the future of rheumatology and changing the quality of patient care for the better.”
We caught up with specialist physiotherapist, Ginny Ward, at this year’s Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology Conference in Brighton. Ginny works in the paediatric rheumatology department at Bristol Children's Hospital and is a successful candidate on the Future Leaders programme.
“I’m really excited to have been selected for this programme, I’m glad to have the opportunity to really make a difference within paediatric rheumatology,” Ginny said.
“The programme is designed to really encourage people to keep on working together and carry on supporting each other. During the course, I'll be encouraged to do my own individual quality improvement project. They’ll be coaching and mentoring me through the whole process, which will give me the chance to put my effort into something that is worthwhile.
“Hopefully some of the changes that I introduce will be replicated throughout the country.”
The group will be meeting again before Christmas, to continue to share best practices and develop their projects at Ashridge House.