SPSP Team

With varied experience in both the voluntary sector and the NHS. She has worked regionally in the Cancer Network and as a planner at Board level. Her interest is in QI, clinical engagement and being able to demonstrate improvements year on year from service to Board. Her experience of improvement coaching is on a team and individual basis at all levels and she trained as an Improvement Advisor with IHI in 2012.

Her clinical interest is in anaesthesia for emergency general and vascular surgery. She was appointed Associate Medical Director for Patient Safety in NHS Lothian in Oct 2011. As medical lead for patient safety, she is involved in building capacity for improvement in safety by engaging clinicians, supervising and delivering training for doctors, dentists, nurses and other AHPs in safety and human factors. Nikki completed the IHI Improvement Advisors course through HIS in 2014. Nikki was one of the original co-directors of the Scottish Clinical Simulation Centre, which first opened in Stirling in 1997 and was centre director from 2004-2012. Interested in Human Factors and behavioural aspects of performance, she has been involved in the development of the Anaesthetic (ANTS), surgical (NOTSS) and scrub practitioners (SPLINTS) non-technical skills behavioural marker systems for use within the operating room. She is a member of the Patient Safety Board of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of the standing group of the Clinical Human Factors Group.

Carolyn started her nursing career in Aberdeen in 1984 as a Registered General Nurse. She has since worked in various specialties and hospitals in NHS Lothian e.g. MOE, HDU, ITU, surgical wards, community and treatment rooms. Carolyn also qualified as a Registered Midwife (Lothian College) and has completed a BSc in Advanced Nursing & Financial Planning at Queen Margaret University. She started in the QI Department, on the first day of the launch of the SPSP in 2008 and qualified as an Improvement Advisor, trained by the IHI in 2011 whilst also working as a QI Facilitator. She has worked at a national level with HIS and NES and has been part of a variety of Lothian improvement projects. One of her projects won the NHS Scotland Safety Award which led to a study bursary – this entailed visits to Toyota in Wales and other external High Reliability Organisations. She was Service Improvement Manager at SJH before returning to QIST as Quality & Safety Improvement Lead and Patient Safety Programme Manager.

I am a NMC registered nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Adult Health nursing. I started my nursing career as a staff nurse working in a specialist brain injury unit, during this time I completed post graduate modules in brain injury. My commitment and enthusiasm to produce better outcomes led to my successful completion of the Violence and Aggression Link Trainer course. My confidence and ability to teach others gave me the necessary skills to join the Quality Improvement Support Team as a facilitator. I am the Quality Improvement (QI) Facilitator for community nursing in NHS Lothian, tasked with building capacity and capability for QI, primarily within the framework of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme. I provide support and coaching to District Nursing teams and community hospitals.
I completed the Scottish Improvement Skills Course in 2015 and most recently NES Scottish Improvement Leaders programme. These courses offered me the chance to build on my existing knowledge of improvement science to increase my confidence coaching frontline staff.

Since qualifying as a nurse in 1980 I have worked in a variety of areas across different sites. Latterly as Night Co-ordinator at the RVH and DCN in ward 51 at the WGH. I spent some time on secondment as Clinical Supervisor for return to practice nurses then moved to the a non-registered work force education team supporting TCSW’s to achieve their SVQ qualification. Following some time facilitating the ‘Releasing time to Care’ programme I returned to clinical practice. In this role as part of QIST, I support teams working with inpatients across all sites, to ensure that appropriate falls risk management strategies, policies and protocols are being implemented effectively and equitably. We support teams of nurses, AHP’s and medical staff with local and site based education which we link to national and local learning (from adverse events). I completed the Scottish Improvement Skills Course in 2017 which helps me support the work of the SPSP falls work-stream. I have been involved with the development of the care rounding, top to toe video, Learn-Pro for falls in the Adult patient and the falls policy

I am an NMC registered nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Studies. Following a career in nursing I worked in the Orthopaedic trauma unit and hip fracture audit at the old RIE. After a brief spell as a community nurse, working predominantly with patients over 75 years I returned to the AAH to work as a liaison nurse assisting patients on discharge to settle into the community following orthopaedic rehabilitation.
Having worked predominantly with the older person and those who have suffered falls it was an inevitable transition into working to help prevent and manage falls in the hospital setting as a Falls Co-ordinator. In this role I work with QIST to ensure that appropriate falls risk management strategies, policies and protocols are being implemented effectively and equitably within all care settings and management structures. I also contribute a specialist resource and support (including training and education) to health and social care professionals.
I completed the Scottish Improvement Skills Course in 2016 which helps me support the work of the SPSP falls work-stream. I have been involved with the development of the care rounding, top to toe video, Learn-Pro for falls in the Adult patient and the falls policy.

Wendy is a QI Facilitator focusing on data analysis within the Team. She is responsible for submitting the SPSP data to HIS, the Team’s regular monthly reporting on priorities such as Cardiac Arrest, Pressure Ulcer, Falls and dealing with ad hoc data requests. She maintains and runs reports from the Cardiac Arrest/2222 Calls database which the Resus Officers populate. Wendy is involved in helping out on the Quality Improvement Database System (QiDS) Helpdesk and liaising with the company who developed and maintain QiDS. Wendy joined the Department as a Clinical Audit Project Officer in 1999. Prior to that she completed a MA (Hons) in Psychology at Dundee University and worked as Clerical Officer and Medical Secretary at Family Planning & Well Woman Services and as a Research Assistant with Edinburgh University. Whilst completing her MSc in IT (Medical Informatics) at Glasgow University she worked as a Medical Secretary in Dermatology at RIE.