‘I want to work with you, Kelly’: praise for ED turnaround chief nurse
As chief nurse wins praise for working alongside emergency department staff, let’s see more examples of this kind of leadership and collective culture change in the NHS
How do you spot a good nurse leader? They are visible, regularly walking the wards, speaking to and listening to staff and, crucially, acting on concerns.
But how many lead like Kelly McGovern?
ED staff were demoralised and disempowered
On joining West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as chief nurse in 2023, Ms McGovern saw a crisis in the emergency department (ED), and stepped straight in.
The trust was 120th in England for its four-hour ED waiting target and had been in the media for its 28-bed corridor. Unsurprisingly, morale was poor with a ‘disempowered workforce’ that had normalised the situation, Ms McGovern told MPs.
The chief nurse could have stayed firefighting from behind her desk and done the occasional walkabout, but instead she and the deputy medical director joined the ED, working alongside all clinicians every day for a month.
Shared accountability in the NHS
Giving evidence to the health and social care committee on corridor care this month (March), Ms McGovern said the situation was turned around by the pair working shoulder-to-shoulder with staff in the ED ‘on the worst days’, fostering a sense of shared risk and accountability, and creating a positive organisational culture where there was a sense of all being in it together.
The trust is now in the top five for its four-hour performance.
After reading our story, nurses have been full of praise for Ms McGovern, but many noted it can be unusual for such a senior nurse to be on the ‘shop floor’ for a sustained period.
Effective nurse leadership can transform staff morale and patient outcomes
The impact of effective leadership – be it transformational or another style – is well-evidenced in relation to how it influences patient outcomes, staff morale and retention. Yet how often is an extraordinary case study such as this NHS trust shared? We need more of them.
A positive workplace culture is best assessed by how staff feel. And the feeling can be infectious – as one NHS worker, who doesn’t work for the trust, put it on Facebook: ‘I want to work with you, Kelly’.
