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Articles by David Foord
From telegraphs to telephones: Tracing the socio-technical transition in Canadian telecommunications from 1846 to 1980
Abstract This paper examines how multiple forces, embracing technological, political, business and social circumstances, shaped the Canadian transition from the telegraph to telephone.
Week 5: ‘People’ Experience
No free gift this week I’m afraid, but there is a challenge for you, at the end of my blog this week. The results of the 2013 NHS Staff Survey have been published. The response from NHS Employers celebrates improvements, but openly acknowledges areas the NHS still needs to improve on. Staff experience is a really important area and we have been looking at the results of the survey relating to our CCG staff and those of our local providers.
Week 4: Opening Up For NHS Change Day & the UpGoer5
READ TO THE END FOR A FREE GIFT!!! Last year a single tweet (not by me I hasten to add!) sparked an idea that led to 189,000 people making personal pledges to change something in to improve the NHS for patients. This was the first NHS Change Day. March 3rd 2014 is the second NHS Change Day where the aim is for over half a million pledges. Before it's official launch on March 3rd we are already over half way to this target.
How's My Tweeting - The Results!
In January I asked you ‘How’s My Tweeting’ to get feedback on my use of Twitter so that I could improve how I connect with and help you through this medium.
Week 2: It started with a tweet…
This is the tweet that started it: I wrote about this tweet on day 96 of my 100-day blog. The response I got and subsequent conversation on twitter is summarised here, produced brilliantly by Clare Helm. The response, whilst containing great examples of health service providers using social media for patient benefit, wasn’t full of a huge amount of similar examples by commissioners. There was however a need identified for more support for commissioners in this area.
What does it take to be a leader?
I’ve spent a lot of time this week thinking about leadership. This was prompted by two significant things: firstly I was Acting Chief Officer while my boss took a well-earned break; and secondly I attended a feedback session for survey results as part of my participation in the NHS Leadership Academy Top Leaders’ Programme. Prior to the feedback I had to undertake a series of ‘diagnostic’ tests.
How to blog, for health professionals
It’s still November and therefore, it’s still #NaBloPoMo (no, nothing to do with ridiculous facial hair; National Blog Posting Month – come on, keep up) and in my last post I wrote about ‘why’ health professionals should blog. When discussing this post on Twitter, someone asked me if I would write a ‘how’ to blog post for health professionals.I can’t for the life of me remember who asked me this, so if it was you, thanks for the inspiration J.
Director's Diary
An ‘open blog’ to all political parties on the NHS in advance of the general election I recently received a letter from an MP/parliamentary candidate* where I live.If you haven’t had one similar, then it’s probably coming soon.The letter went on for a whole page describing all the things wrong with the local NHS, ‘explaining’ all the reasons why this was the fault of ‘the other guy’ and no explanation at all of what this individual had/would do should they be/continue to be in Government...
Advice for new health & social care graduates
I've been privileged to be invited as the guest of honour and to give a short speech at two academic award ceremonies at a local University. Those graduating will include midwives and nurses from child, adult, learning disability and mental health fields. There will also be post-graduate awards including health visiting, school nursing, medical and dental education, operating department practitioners and assistant healthcare practitioners amongst many others.
#NaBloPoMo (and why health professionals should blog)
November is National Blog Posting Month (follow the #NaBloPoMo hashtag on Twitter).
Week 7: Does Nursing Have A Self-Image Problem?
Roy Lilley's daily blog on Tuesday 25 March was about the problem he has with compassion, which he sees as too superficial and lacking substance. He questioned whether 'love' would be a suitable substitute asking: "Can we do love in the NHS?". Whilst I don't entirely agree with Roy and I do truly believe that compassion can be taught, developed and nurtured in many; this got me thinking about whether there's an issue with how the public perceive nurses.
Competitive Dialogue
The technical detail of NHS procurement is not going to make the most inspiring blog for the majority, so it’s with trepidation that I write this post about what we’re doing in Luton at the moment. Due to the specific procurement process I’m writing about still not being complete, I have to be careful about some of the detail, but I will either update this post in the future, or write again on the subject (unless there’s a significant ground-swell of opinion that I don’t!).
Week 8: “It’s the economy, stupid”
NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are the part of the NHS responsible for commissioning health services for a local population.In simple terms, this means assessing need, purchasing services and ensuring NHS funded service providers achieve required quality & outcomes.Some health services like primary care (GPs, Dentists, Pharmacists & Optometrists) and specialised services, such as renal (kidney) dialysis services as well as neonatal care, severe burns care and some mental health and...
Week 3: Sequins & Values-based Commissioning
I wrote previously about CQUINs (pronounced: ‘see-kwin’) on Day 38 of my 100 day blog, but this post really is about sequins (partly)! Watching the Winter Olympic Ice Dance with my wife, brother-in-law and sister-in-law we were a little perplexed by the scoring system. A simple question arising of: “what’s the maximum possible score” led to furious Googling and unsuccessful efforts to find a straight answer to this seemingly simple question.
Week 11: Celebrate the 6Cs on International Nurses/Midwife Day
For 2014’s International Day of the Midwife and International Nurses’ Day on 5 and 12 May I would like to propose that we add some celebration to the 6Cs. In our very busy personal and professional lives there is often little boundary between the two! We seldom take time to appreciate what we have, where we’ve come from and the wonderful profession that we share.
They Came, They Saw, They Inspected
On Thursday last week I received notification that on Monday (this week) the Care Quality Commission were coming for a week to inspect Child Safeguarding and Looked After Children’s Health Services.The CQC are the regulators for all health and adult social care services in England.They have previously done these inspections jointly with Ofsted and therefore have included Local Authorities and Children’s’ Social Services in their scope; however, this inspection was just the CQC.Therefore,...
How's My Tweeting?
It is the customary time of year to think about new beginnings and I have been reflecting on my use of social media, in particular Twitter. I have always been interested in continuous self-improvement for the benefit of others.This can be achieved through reliable feedback, reflection, learning. adaptation and practise. It is therefore through this blog, and connected survey, that I am seeking your feedback on my use of Twitter so that I may reflect, learn and then practise new things.
Week 9: Continuing Healthcare
One of the central principles of the new NHS in 1948 was to be free at the point of need.Aside from some notable exceptions such as prescription & dental charges, this continues to be the case in the NHS in England.This principle has been questioned and challenged over the years; more recently by a suggestion that people could be charged a monthly ‘subscription’ fee.Fortunately, so far, this isn’t formal Government, opposition or NHS policy.
Incidents, Seriously?
When something goes wrong, the NHS has a responsibility to learn from it and to prevent it from happening again. When this results in serious harm to anyone, the weight of responsibility to learn and improve is even greater. Within the NHS we call these Serious Incidents and each NHS organisation has a policy through which these are identified, investigated, lessons learnt and improvement made to reduce the risk of recurrence.
Week 10: Commissioning for Quality & Outcomes
The next @WeCommissioners live Tweet Chat at 8pm on 6 May is on the subject of Commissioning for Quality & Outcomes. This is the current version of the pre-chat blog. First a quick recap on commissioning: “Commissioning in the NHS entails decisions about needs assessment, resource allocation, service purchasing, monitoring and review.” Nuffield Trust, 2014.
Week 6: Nurse Leadership in Commissioning
At 8.00pm on Tuesday 25 March @WeCommissioners , along with @WeNurses and @6CsLive are hosting a Twitter chat on the opportunities and challenges for nurse leaders in commissioning. The chat will explore this in more depth, but as some pre-reading, this blog will explore the different roles of nurse leaders in commissioning. Nurse leaders come in all shapes and sizes and this is no different for nurses working in commissioning.
#TANTT - Teach A Nurse to Tweet Tuesday
Today is Tuesday. Today, @WeNurses, I and others supported nurses to learn to use Twitter.This was Teach A Nurse To Tweet Tuesday, which is a weekly campaign. The benefits of nurses using Twitter are many and broad. This greatblog by @Gray3Gray explains her journey in discovering the value of Twitter to health professionals.
6 Crazy Digital Images Practices by eLearning Professionals That Actually Work
It is known that a picture is worthier than words. That sounds trivial but it is true. That is why the importance of using images in eLearning is indisputable. Yet, picking photos for eLearning courses may be a big challenge, from licensing and formats, to the sheer educational value of an image and how it fits a mood. You can either make your students remember the information or distract their attention. Is anything easy anymore?! Fret not.
10 Amazing Moodle™ Tricks And Tips By David Foord
№1. Add a welcome message in the course introduction Do you want your students to get a welcome message when they start your course? Currently there is no straightforward way for the student to receive a welcome email, but there is a mechanism that does the same function. This is a complement named is “Dialogue“, designed so you can communicate directly with each student in the course.
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