Hello – my name is Dr Annette Richardson and I am an Improvement Facilitator in the Newcastle Improvement team.
Our role is to support improvement in the Trust.
Improvement is really just change that makes things better for patients and for staff.
We support improvement by working with teams and use an approach that is based on improvement methodology.
We also offer advice and support to teams so they can lead changes that are important to them in their own areas.
The team is made up of staff from many backgrounds including finance, performance, research, NMAHPs and more!
My journey into NHS improvement
I trained as a nurse and have spent all my clinical career in critical care nursing.
During my role as a nurse consultant in critical care, I became really interested in improvement, so undertook several Trust-wide projects to prevent patient harm.
I worked for the ‘WHO – World Alliance for Patient Safety’ on their ‘clean hands campaign’ and as a nurse lead on a national improvement project called ‘Matching Michigan’ to reduce central line infections in critically ill patients.
I have experience with Trust-wide improvement as delivery lead for; ‘7 Day Services’ and for the ‘Sign up to Safety’ campaign.
In 2018 I was proud to receive my PhD in Quality Improvement.
Why I love my job
I am passionate about facilitating staff and teams to improve patient care.
I also enjoy helping with evaluating changes and supporting staff to publish/promote their improvement work.
Contact us
Improvement is a simple and effective process and can be done by anyone. You don’t need to be an expert.
It can feel a bit daunting to know where to start but there are improvement experts on hand in our team to help you get started.
If you have an idea for making quality improvements the Newcastle Improvement team would love to hear from you.
