60 Seconds with quality improvement professor Sue Hooton

In her new professorial post, Sue Hooton is developing a networked community committed to improving patient care

Sue Hooton is professor of nursing and quality improvement at the University of Chester. She qualified as a nurse in 1981 at Alder Hey and Royal Liverpool Hospitals.

Married with two children, both working in health care, she has held several posts in children’s services, including a six-year spell as national education adviser (child health) with the English National Board for Nursing and Midwifery.

In 2010 she obtained a Florence Nightingale Scholarship and was awarded an OBE for services to nursing.

What are your main work responsibilities? 

I work with and research alongside front line practitioners undertaking quality improvement projects. I provide on-site coaching, as well as teaching leadership and quality improvement across a range of university programmes.

How did you get your job?  

I have worked in higher education on and off throughout my career and became an Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Quality Improvement Graduate in 2011. My new professorial post provides the perfect opportunity to design a quality improvement education framework.

What do you love about your job?

I am passionate about the benefits that quality improvement can bring to staff and healthcare users, and I relish the opportunity to share what I know and continually learn from others.

What do you find most difficult?

I find containing my enthusiasm difficult at times, as well as coping with the overly bureaucratic systems one sometimes encounters!

What is your priority at work?

To develop a quality improvement community, consisting of lecturers, practitioners, students and service users, designed to promote an ‘all learn, all share’ approach to improving patient care.

How have you developed your skills in this role?

My Florence Nightingale award provided the opportunity to study at IHI in Boston, Massachusetts and I remain in contact with my international learning set.

I have also been lucky enough to work at AQuA (The Advancing Quality Alliance) in the north west of England where I ran several improvement collaboratives over the past few years; this developed my knowledge, skills and confidence.

What has been your most formative career experience?

Developing a paediatric nurse training school in Kenya and learning how much can be achieved with so few resources.

What career advice would you give your younger self?

Take more time out for reflection – and get some career planning advice.