Meet our AHPs

Find out what some of our AHPs say about their roles here at Whittington Health, their training, support and development and what it feels like to be a part of our team.

Barbara O�Donnell

Anaesthetic Team Lead and Operating Department Practitioner

Along with the rest of the AHP community, I believe that lifelong learning is at the heart of our professions. One example of this is that I�ll soon move from my role to becoming a resuscitation officer. My role here has always involved resuscitation, but I will be specialising in this area and embarking on Resuscitation Council courses that the trust will support me to do.

Barbara O�Donnell

The Team Spirit
We�re a team of about 15 ODPs and anaesthetic nurses and we all pull together to look after new recruits. Even when we took in students during COVID-19, time was taken to look after them and support their learning. Whenever there is a tense and difficult situation, the entire team comes together to deliver good care.

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Variety of Work

Our days are busy and varied, with no two ever the same. There is always plenty to learn, whether from difficult situations or from non-clinical aspects. Along with the rest of the AHP community, I believe that lifelong learning is at the heart of our professions. One example of this is that I�ll soon move from my role to becoming a resuscitation officer. My role here has always involved resuscitation, but I will be specialising in this area and embarking on Resuscitation Council courses that the trust will support me to do.

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Spotting Talent

Appraisals are a key tenet of keeping up our standards and alongside those more formal reviews I always instigate informal check-ins - looking after staff is important and to check-in with them on a human level has always been a focus of mine.
We like to develop talent and ability at Whittington. I always try to spur people on by giving them projects they are interested in and that will suit their skill set.

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Recently, we gave a Quality Improvement project to a nurse as she had expressed an interest in streamlining medicine management. With our encouragement, she went on to instigate a full medicine management audit, which both made our lives easier and answered an area identified in a CQC inspection. Seeing our staff fly gives me great job satisfaction.