Our fifth birthday coincides with the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale.
We think we are in good company!
We look to Flo’ for all sorts of reference points as managers and practitioners. She was the first to realise the importance of, what, today, we call, data.
She went so far as to say; ‘To understand God’s thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose…’
Perhaps that’s where we get the phrase, ‘in God we trust, everyone else brings data!’
She also gave us; ‘… the amount of relief and comfort experienced by the sick after the skin has been carefully washed and dried, is one of the commonest observations made at a sick bed’.
At the Academy we’ve translated that into, the little things are the big things.
Since our day-one we have always taken the view there is no idea too small to share, no person, too junior, to have an idea worth sharing, no part of an organisation that does not have an idea worth showing to the wider community.
In five years we have had more than our fair share of small ideas, great ideas and some huge game-changers.
It is probably true to say the Academy has earned its place in the landscape of healthcare. We have helped the DH and NHSE and I with their campaigns, got behind hospitals and helped them achieve their goals, supported individuals with their ideas. Ideas and campaigns that have cascaded across the landscape of health care and overseas.
Shares counted in their thousands, searches in the hundreds of thousands, yet…
… yet the Academy is only a web-site.
What has made the work of the Academy, fabulous, is you and the thousands who have taken part, shared their thoughts. Everyone with the common purpose of knowing; the only way to improve the NHS is to share the best that we have.
We can inspect and regulate until we are blue in the face. The only way for us, all, to get better at the complex job of delivering healthcare, is to look for the best we can find and share it.
Our journey has taken us from silent peddle bins to improved flow through A&E. We have gone from ‘twiddle-muffs’, to approaches to surgery. Early, safe-discharge, to technology and data analysis. There is almost no part of the NHS that isn’t represented in the Academy’s unique, free, resource.
This year we awarded the first two, new, blue-plaque awards to Trusts for their fabulousness!
And, it is all there because of you. Because of the generous and genuine belief that the least we can do, with the best we can do, is to share it.
Flo also said; ‘Never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning’ and she is right.
The shares, innovations and ideas are all based in practical beginnings, spotting a problem, seizing an opportunity finding a solution that works and saying, ‘this worked for me, I hope it works for you.’
To everyone who has supported us, been to our events, written articles, helped us on our way, our sponsors and mostly you… thank you for everything you have done.
It’s your Academy and we are looking forward to seeing how you will make it even more fabulous in the next five years.
Happy Birthday…
This birthday poem was written for you all by @andreadgibbons
