Weeknote 20th — 26th June 2022
I’m back with weeknotes after returning to work after my operation. I’m feeling lucky to having had to only take 6 weeks off to recover but I am easing myself in to work and the hours that I am doing. Big thanks to all my colleagues who have been so supportive throughout my illness, kept everything going whilst I was off and have given me such a warm welcome back to work. I also returned to work to a nomination for Women in Tech Excellence award for Digital Leader of the Year which was a fantastic thing to see in my inbox.
People say that having had an illness such as cancer gives you a new perspective on things. For me it’s not as much a new perspective, more like a bolstering of my values and boldness in what I do to uphold them. This could just be because I have had a 6 week break from work or it could be that the past few months have had some pretty worrying and scary moments, so everything else pales into insignificance in terms of the fear factor.
What happened this week
I spent much of my time catching up with colleagues to get myself up to date on what had happened during the past 6 weeks and what I needed to prioritise to deal with.
Within 24 hours of returning to work I was challenging an unfair decision that had been made and bringing people together to get it sorted. It was at this point that my colleagues had confirmation that I was indeed well and back to my usual self.
I attended the Digital Health Inequalities Steering Group, met with the organisers of HETT to discuss a session on patient safety in the digital era, led a session on user centred design for our business and operational delivery profession and took part in the first session of our directorate workforce strategy sub-committee.
I caught up with the work we have been doing on product maturity at the team’s show and tell and took part in a session about how we fit all our different maturity frameworks and tools together.
The importance of embedding and investing in inclusive design from the start of developing products was prevalent this week in a number of areas. One of my key priorities now I am back at work is pressing forward with developing how inclusive design is just part of how we get things done.
On a personal note, amongst the press releases from NHS Confed Expo was this exciting couple of sentences;
‘The NHS will also launch a new programme of genetic testing for BRCA mutations for people with Jewish heritage who are at higher risk of mutations…This is expected to identify thousands more BRCA carriers over the next three years so they can seek early access to further surveillance and prevention programmes.’ https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/06/high-street-pharmacies-spot-cancers-in-new-nhs-early-diagnosis-drive/
It looks like community testing for BRCA could now be happening. Getting more people tested is something that I have been advocating hard for through my voluntary work. Community testing is something that could have saved my mum’s life and prevented her cancer so to read this was another big positive on my return to work.
What I have been thinking about
A thing I am calling the researcher reflex. Working in health tech does tend to make you curious when you are in a health environment but when you wake up in recovery after major surgery, whose first thoughts would be to ask the person looking after them about the tech they were using?
With the room still spinning and still unable to focus post op I could hear people discussing whether to use the iPad to do the obs or to just input to the desktop computer. Some research receptors kicked off . I couldn’t help myself as they checked my obs and I started asking about what I had heard and how each option worked. Didn’t get to probe far into their answer as the boost of pain meds they gave me kicked in and I fell back to sleep again. I did however manage to ask the same question when I arrived on the ward so I could think about how the same tech had different impact in a different context.
I have also been thinking about how my work and health experience has collided. Over the past couple of months, I have seen and experienced the value of health tech. There are many examples but one that got me thinking during my time in hospital was NHS wifi. Whilst I sat in the day surgery waiting room watching trash day time TV, unable to find a remote to change the channel and unable to focus on my book whilst it was on, I was incredibly grateful for free hospital wifi. Last time I had an operation, hospital wifi did not exist nor was there a very good signal on your phone. This wasn’t so bad as you were allowed to have someone with you whilst you waited and when you woke back on the ward. Covid has changed that and I can’t tell you how important wifi access and free wifi access is to patients and their families in this new context.
The fact that you can use things like whatsapp to keep in contact with your loved ones, update them on what is happening and that they can contact you when they need to know how you are, is absolutely priceless. One of my fellow patients had a very frantic family member call her on whastapp who had spent hours trying to call her on her phone and had no response because there is no signal in the hospital. When your loved one is having an operation, when your loved one has cancer, when you can’t be with them physically to support them, being able to facetime or whatsapp via hospital wifi makes a huge difference. I imagine it makes a difference to recovery times given the relief it can bring to people who are anxious or just need a speak to someone they are close to to make them feel better.
What am I doing next week
Finishing my Women in Health Tech Excellence nomination questionnaire
Inclusive design lead recruitment preparation
User centre design maturity community of practice
Continuing to catch up with colleagues
Continuing to protect my reflection time
