We're out in front, leading the way

As a patient I’d seen a lot that was inspiring in the NHS, as well as areas that had room for improvement. That experience, combined with the quality of the programme and the opportunity to complete a Masters, made the graduate scheme an attractive option for me.

I didn’t really have much idea of what it would be like working for the NHS. There are so many organisations making up the NHS, all made up of different types of people, doing different things. There’s a lot of interaction going on between a huge variety of professionals, all with differing opinions and interests, which adds an important extra element to the decision-making process.

The one thing you can be certain of is that you’ll experience something new every day, whether that’s carrying out a new piece of work, having a meeting with new people or dealing with a crisis. As well as making things interesting, this also means you’re always learning new things and finding new areas you might be interested to work in.

My last role was running a stakeholder engagement project within a £90 million new hospital project at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. That involved running focus groups with inpatients, carrying out surveys of outpatients, presenting my findings to Foundation Trust members at the AGM and writing the communications strategy whilst the hospital is being built.

As well as being able to gain an academic qualification, the scheme offers lots of opportunities to develop your professional and leadership skills, from giving presentations to reporting to executives. There are also a large number of optional courses you can attend to develop specific skills such as budget control and writing business cases.

The changes taking place in the NHS are going to make the next few years very challenging, but they will also create a lot of opportunity. I’m planning on staying with the NHS and I would definitely encourage graduates to join the scheme – there’s a reason it’s one of the top five in the country. As well as the quality of the placements, the opportunities for personal development and the academic qualifications, you’re experiencing constant challenge and working with 1.4 million employees from different professions in an organisation with a budget of £100bn. As well as this, the ultimate outcome isn’t just a customer, it’s a patient.

Helping people is my big passion in life, so the first reason I joined the NHS was because I felt it offered the only graduate management scheme which would let me make a real difference to the most vulnerable in society. The second was the brilliant rewards, career prospects and education offered.

I have to say that working here has been exactly what I expected: hard work, often frustrating and sometimes political, but ultimately incredibly rewarding. The sense of achievement you get knowing you’ve done something to improve patient care is amazing.

I’m based in the East of England region, which is fascinating because it’s so diverse, with affluent and deprived areas sitting side-by-side. It’s also right at the forefront of innovation and development: for example, it was implementing government reforms even before they became policy.

My most recent placement involved designing, producing and implementing a Referral Management Toolkit for 16 GP practices in Huntingdonshire. Basically it’s a series of dashboards that GPs can use to compare referrals to outpatient departments not only against other practices, but also by specific GPs and by specialities. Hopefully this will promote peer discussion and review and eventually achieving savings.

No two days are ever the same in my job. Certain things do crop up on a regular basis though, such as meetings with clinical and non-clinical staff, analysing data and writing reports. My greatest achievement so far has been carrying out research and producing a board level report which identified over £500,000 of annual savings as well as staff morale boosting initiatives.

The education, coaching and leadership skills training I’ve received have helped me to become a professional manager who can handle difficult and stressful situations. They’ve also made me more politically aware – something that’s vital in the NHS.

Joining the NHS is a life-changing career move. You can gain a postgraduate qualification and develop a skill set that will make you stand out from the crowd –and at the same time you’ll be making a real difference.