HSR UK member the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) is an independent charity and membership organisation, the professional home of medical leadership and management in the UK, whose primary purpose is to raise the standard of patient care by supporting doctors to improve medical leadership. Since establishing the first UK Leadership and Management Standards for Medical Professionals, FMLM awards fellowship to doctors who can demonstrate that they meet these standards at one of three levels. FMLM fellows include the UK’s Chief Medical Officers; NHS England’s National Medical Director; as well as medical leaders of all specialties, seniority and career grades in the UK.
FMLM recognises from first-hand reports that clinicians need help and support to look after themselves in order to care for their patients, colleagues, teams and organisations during the ‘marathon’ response to Covid-19. To respond to this, the Faculty has introduced safe space conversations to help medical leaders under pressure give attention to their own welfare and resilience, so that they may be able to lead effectively over the coming months. The aim is to provide NHS medical leaders with an expert, compassionate listening environment in which to ‘offload’, while continuing to learn and develop through this crucial time. These conversations use the principles of Professor Michael West’s research on compassionate leadership and are subtly different to coaching; they pay attention to a shared understanding of what medical leaders face and apply intelligent action to bolster resilience, reinforce leadership skills and enhance personal effectiveness using FMLM’s ‘PPR’ framework of support.
Providing this service will FMLMs expert group of associates and coaches from across the UK, with both clinical and non-clinical senior NHS leadership backgrounds and experience.
Safe space conversations have been developed with senior leaders in mind but are bespoke and can benefit all levels of leadership. For an initial conversation to find out more and for FMLM to better understand how to deliver the support your doctors need, please get in touch by emailing [email protected].