Elizabeth Mercado

I have been working in Critical Care Unit for more than 20 years and currently band 7 for over 4 years My overall experience has given me wealth of opportunities to continue to grow personally and professionally I have also acquired various skills and knowledge in leading team, and in dealing with difficult or complex situations And most of all, my ability to rise above diverse challenges that have presented while shift leading and as manager in Critical Care Unit

I am not only committed in consistently delivering Trust values and our mission for organization, but I have also been working extremely hard to develop personally and professionally to match expectations of this role I fully understand that role is very challenging and goes beyond patient care, but I am excited and have always enjoyed challenges and responsibilities that comes with I will gladly embrace any challenges, and obstacles that will come along way I will continue to lead and inspire people to achieve their maximum potential, and to ensure that highest standard of patient centered care is always met I will also continue to act as advocate, in continuously driving improvement of our services and to empower my team to work by NHS value of commitment to quality of care

My extensive experience of working in ICU and as band 7, has equipped me with excellent communication and leadership skills in interacting with patients, relatives, and colleagues within multi-disciplinary team This involves managing political agendas, dealing with complex and stressful situations, and problem solving Most of time, it is about engaging and having those difficult and challenging conversations with colleagues, stakeholder, patients, and relatives I always make sure that problems are acted upon and resolved promptly to prevent them from aggravating or escalating My role requires me to analyze critical data, to continuously plan and to respond to constant changes and challenges of unit

When leading the team, I always strive to be flexible with my plans, manage and organize patient flow in and out of unit with safety, as top priority I strongly believe that supporting staff morale is very crucial in running coherent team I support my colleagues by actively engaging, giving them sense of responsibility, valuing individual differences, and making them feel that they are very important part of the team This has always helped me in organizing extremely busy unit when shift leading I make sure that all activities are running smoothly, and patient flow are being facilitated in timely manner This in turn, prevent delays in admissions or discharges and most importantly, patients are receiving appropriate treatment, at the right time, and in the right place in accordance with Trust Core Values I am always passionate about putting patients' safety as focus in every decision I make Ensuring highest standard of evidence-based patient care is being delivered Making sure that I share the same mission with my team and empower everyone towards achieving the same goal

As manager, I keep my skills and knowledge up to date by attending relevant study days, leadership courses and quality improvement trainings I enjoy the challenge of driving and engaging with people in contributing to improve our practice and especially in leading quality improvement projects I do this by keeping myself proactive in working groups and QI projects in CCU I am currently involved in quality improvement projects in Medicine management, which aims at improving safety and culture in medicine administration in CCU I am also leading the blood transfusion QI project, which is ongoing and looking at reduction in DATIX related to blood transfusion I have presented our EDI QI project during QI Network NCA event last year Aside from that, I am also currently leading on the following working groups ie, Equality and Diversity Link group in CCU which aims in promoting inclusion and staff retention in CCU Our EDI team have successfully won the RCN Northwest nomination award for our EDI contribution last September 2023 We have also won another award this year from Intensive Care Society for the recognition of our outstanding work, which I have presented our work to the Intensive Care Society conference in Liverpool last June 2024 I have also been awarded the inclusive Leadership of the year award last 26/12/2024 following nomination amongst other civil service I am also a link lead in CCU for Blood Transfusion, Medicine Action Group, and Environmental Safety working group in CCU I have successfully launched pin site care pathway in EPR and have been involved training staff in bowel management for spinal patients

As a manager and shift leader, I am responsible in looking after staff morale and their wellbeing I always strive to support staff to develop, by active engagement and providing equal development opportunities for all and valuing diversity across the team I always make sure that everyone I am responsible for are up to date and compliant with all the mandatory requirements I regularly touch based with my mentor team to make sure that I know where they up to, or if they require any support And lastly, I ensure that everyone is contributing to achieving NAAS /CQC targets and that everyone is demonstrating the highest standard of care, in line with the Trust Core Values Leading robust team is necessary in maintaining patient safety and in delivery of high-quality evidence-based care I lead by acting as role model with integrity, providing strong and effective leadership through hard work, discipline, and positive attitude I promote teamwork by supporting, encouraging others to develop and learn, and providing feedback I consider myself effective team leader - fair, approachable, dependable, hardworking, goal achiever and resilient I love and enjoy my work and seeing positive result of good teamwork

My vision is focused on creating culture for continuous improvement, driving the team forward and working towards the same mission, while maintaining safety elements through visible leadership