It’s Saturday morning and I have a rare 5 minutes to drink a cup of tea and read a magazine. On my kitchen table is this month's edition of Frontline, which I used to just skim through to see if any of my old friends and colleagues were featured! As I flick through the pages quickly I land on a few ‘gems’ and thought I would share them with you.
First up was Karen Middleton (Head of CSP) on ‘how to truly listen and compassionate leadership.’ As we build DPT from the ground up we are keen to achieve the best possible working environment for our staff and to get the best out of them by encouraging a healthy and happy workforce. Joe Biden was quoted this week for saying to his team ‘if I see any of you not attending your children’s school events or family functions then I will not be happy'. We all know practically this is very difficult to achieve in life and there are always pressures that get in the way of these things but I thought, if Joe Biden can say that, then we at DPT can strive to achieve that as well. So as we work to build our company values we plan to be compassionate leaders as Karen states, give time to our staff to hear how we can help, not doing too little too late and striving to allocate as much resources and support as we can to enable our staff to thrive. Though I know we are human, and we will fail from time to time at least if we set this out as a goal from the start then we are hopeful that DPT will be a place where many physios, students and others will long to work.
Next up was Nina Paterson’s article on Stepping up for Students. In April, (thanks to Winchester University) we will be welcoming our first student at DPT. This article made me so proud of our profession which has been at the forefront of the pandemic and despite the challenges has stepped up and ‘put the needs of the patients first and also the students.’ ‘What’s been clear is how quickly and how well we have adapted.’ This pandemic although brutal I know, has forced us as physios to act and adapt and think outside the box and I know has already positively shaped the physio profession of the future. We will have frontline physios to thank for this.
Last was ‘Learning from overseas’ by Sarah Dewhurst. ‘The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust motto is ‘travel to learn, return to inspire’ and was set up to enable international collaboration and shared learning. The trust was set up to encourage the importance of looking up and out to challenge your thinking. At DPT we are learning lots from our Romanian team. Whether it was by ‘coincidence’ or ‘just meant to be’ our CEO ended up in Romania this year and inspired by their revolutionary approach to rehab he came back definitely having learned and ready to rethink things. As a physio I have been astounded by the Romanians and their forward thinking, their textbook approach to preventative medicine and their willingness to push boundaries. They are also a nation that is a lot less wasteful than ours, so everything is eco friendly and built to last or to be reused. They are also great at seeing the long term picture and saving on money and resources without compromising on quality. So, I am really excited to be working with the re.flex team and can’t wait to learn more. We have been awed by their work and are excited to put out learning into practice within the UK.
So, thank you Frontline Magazine, it's now a part of my weekly routine.
Carys Hansed
Specialist Physio Lead
