Miss Otis has no regrets: A Tale of Two Suits

One of the plus sides about working at home has been the ability to sit in meetings, barefoot, in shorts, with just a shirt visible on the Zoom or Teams screen. In fact, I have kept a shirt on a hanger just to put on for the meetings and, as soon they are finished, it goes back on the hanger and I’m back with my comfy t-shirt. Since lockdown, I have never had to put a suit on. So it was quite a shock last Tuesday to get up at 5am, shower and root through my wardrobe for a suit to wear. As all my clothes are black, there is no problem choosing, but it did feel unfamiliar. I was part of a Covid secure recruitment panel to be held at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Teaching Hospitals (WWL). We were selecting our new Chief Nurse. We were successful and I’m looking forward to working with her.

It was a long day and I was glad to get back home and hang my suit back in the wardrobe. It didn’t come out again until yesterday – more of which later. But first, what I like about such interviews is listening to what the candidates have to say, how they view the world, and the stories they tell of their experiences. I wasn’t disappointed. And in the best ethnomethodological tradition I thought I might share some of what I heard during the interview conversations.

The first note I made was one of the candidates who talked about ‘mirror up conversations’. I absolutely identified with this notion. ‘Let me hold up a mirror’ is a phrase I have often used in my conversations with others. I found it to be a great way of taking the heat out of confrontational conversations, but most useful when people were struggling with a problem, unable to find a decision they might want to take. And to be honest, it’s something I say to myself when I pick up on cues that I am perhaps not getting my point across effectively.

Thinking about the words we choose to use is of course important in conveying the authenticity of what we are saying. My second note was that one of the candidates consistently used ‘our’ rather than ‘your’ when describing how she had found WWL and her vision for the future. For example, ‘we need to do something about ‘our’ recruitment and retention of nurses’. I found this identification of ‘ours’ interesting. It didn’t seem presumptuous, or proprietorial. I know I was always careful not to describe the School I was Dean of as ‘my’ school. However, the candidate might have felt more comfortable standing in someone else’s shoes in describing her ambitions for the future.

All the candidates managed to get in a comment about Ruth May’s (Chief Nursing Officer for England) support for the global Pathway to Excellence programme. Which if you haven’t heard about the programme, you can read the details here – the programme is absolutely about transforming the future. It’s about learning from the innovation and collective leadership many nurses have been able to demonstrate during the pandemic and beyond.

Innovation is often a result of curiosity. One of the candidates, in responding to a question on promoting and supporting nursing research described themselves as being a ‘curious individual’. I was curious to understand what she meant by this, so I asked her which one of the papers she had published was her favourite and why? Sadly, like many nurses, she hadn’t published any papers, either research or opinion based. However, she did have three great ideas for future research and was able to articulate these well. I believe that nurses could and should do more about gaining a voice in this way.

During the interviews there was much said also about listening to the voices of others, true consultation, co-production and encouraging others to reflect. My favourite line came from a presentation one of the candidates made: ‘there is no limit to listening’ something for all of us to ponder as we continue to work in busy and turbulent times.

And last but not least was the surprising (and interesting) call to ‘make redeployment sexy’. This was a reference to a lesson learnt through the first wave of the pandemic. At that time many healthcare specialities were closed down and staff redeployed to support critical care and other Covid facing services. It’s clear that for many people they were glad to be able to do just that. However, over time, working in an area that was different from perhaps what brought them into the NHS in the first place, took its toll on people’s mental health and wellbeing. As the second wave grows in intensity and once again people will undoubtedly be asked to redeploy again, how this is done and the support they receive will be critical in protecting our colleagues and keeping them safe. 

Miss Otis and that second suit tale. You will have to go back to my blog posting on the 19th April this year to see where the title comes from and its significance for today. However, yesterday I once again put on a black suit, purple clogs, and silver bangles. There was a special reason and it was nothing whatsoever to do with health and social care. This blog post is the first one in the 584 blogs that I’ve posted since 2009 to have been prescheduled. The reason I’m not writing and posting this blog at 5am today for real is that I’m curled up in bed with my wife J, on the first day of our new life together, which I think is kind of special. I will be back next Sunday, alive and kicking, and there is even the possibility of photos too!