The change train!

Nursing is a progressive and evolving profession and ‘no day is ever the same’. Change is exciting and daunting and, irritating. I tell people I love change. But do I really? Or do I love driving change to improve things when I am in control of it? I certainly dislike having changes imposed on me. 

While sat in a restaurant in London late on a Friday evening, I discovered all the trains home were cancelled. In the few minutes it took for my husband to return from the toilet, I had booked us into a cheap hotel, arranged for Dexter Dog to extend his stay with a neighbour, found something to entertain us for the evening and located somewhere open to buy a change of outfit.

I had triumphed in the face of adversity, so was astounded that praise was not immediately heaped on me for my problem-solving ability? It seems people like to be included in decisions about changes that impact on them. Who knew? 

At work I have implemented some less than successful changes. I once decided that I wanted to empower my team and implemented ‘self-rostering’. If I am honest, this was partly driven by my detest for writing rotas. The team hated it. The more assertive members allocated themselves the ‘best’ shifts, while the less vocal picked up everything else. A happy cohesive team turned into a group with elements of resentment and mistrust for each other.

We reached a compromise; I produced a draft rota for comment so everyone could have their say before it was finalised. But it took a few months for the joy to return from the misery I had created. I still believe in self-rostering but learnt that you can’t just impose this kind of change on a team and then just leave them to sort it out with little support and expect it to be a success. 

It’s fundamental to nursing practice that we involve people in decisions about their care and support. But as nursing leaders, do we always effectively involve our teams in decisions that impact on their work? Change is inevitable, we navigate the growing demand for services, workforce shortages, budgetary constraints, regulatory expectations, and our desire to improve and innovate. So, we must manage change well. 

When making changes involving the people which the change effects is vital. They are best placed to know what will work and what won’t. Creating an environment where people can share their ideas and their contribution be respected and valued certainly takes longer than imposing ‘great’ ideas.

It’s not only the right thing to do, but it also increases the chances of implementing successful sustainable change and generates more options to solve the problem.

Fortunately, I am driven by things working rather than my idea ‘winning’ and people have far better ideas than me (sometimes!). I still need to work on my enthusiasm irritating people and my desire to do everything at the speedy pace that suits me. But there is nothing more satisfying than people buying into the change and feeling a part of making things better. 

One of my favourite quotes from Maya Angelou sums up what I think about when managing change: "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

The RCN Congress is a great example of how we can get our voices heard and drive change. The program this year looks amazing. Have a look at the Congress webpages, these contain lots of information about the agenda for this year and speaking in debates. It was the professional highlight of the year for me in 2023. Book yourself a place!