Nicola McNiff

My current job role is split between clinical leadership in the speciality of wound care in podiatry, and line management.

The clinical leadership role involves using my clinical expertise to guide, inspire, and implement service improvement to provide our patients with high-quality care. This is done by providing expert, advanced assessment and treatment for patients while remaining engaged in hands-on patient care.

Due to the complex nature of the patients, who often have complications linked to diabetes and peripheral arterial disease, I effectively liaise with vascular consultants, diabetology consultants, endocrinologists, GPs, orthotists, and nurses as part of a multidisciplinary team to ensure the patient receives the best quality care and treatment plan, while implementing good, shared decision-making.

I mentor and develop the team in my area of expertise in wound care, encouraging staff to develop, motivating the team, improving standards of care for patients, and striving to retain staff through job satisfaction.

As part of this role, I regularly need to complete complex Datixes, and I have a broad understanding of the importance of these in terms of learning from mistakes, improving services, and not entering a blame culture.

I lead on clinical governance and implement policies, guidelines, and standard operating procedures in line with national and local trust guidelines and policies, standardising patient care, keeping up to date with best practice, and ensuring safe and effective care for patients. Working in line with CQC expectations and KLOEs.

I implement service improvement projects and audit the outcomes, using my IT skills and expertise in Systmone and Excel to collate data and present the results.

As part of my continuous professional development within the clinical part of my role, I have undertaken master’s level modules in musculoskeletal conditions of the foot and ankle, podiatric foot orthoses, and the non-medical prescribing course, allowing me to become an independent prescriber. This demonstrates I can study at master’s level and would be willing to undertake further study for career progression.

I work within neighbourhood teams, and I am passionate about patient care in the community. Striving to be part of the future and strategic direction of modern healthcare, prioritising the improvement of resources for integrated neighbourhood teams, avoiding hospital admissions, and enhancing proactive care.

My day-to-day line management responsibilities include staff appraisals, 1-1’s and clinical and managerial supervision. Dealing with patient complaints, staff grievances, sickness monitoring, performance management, and rota challenges, particularly during staff sickness absences.

While I have not directly been involved in managing finances and budgets, I have been involved in initiatives in cost savings, reviewing dressing formularies, and stock to help reduce costs and manage budgets. Although I have limited experience in the finance side, I am a quick learner, and I am willing to attend any relevant courses to develop in this area.

I pride myself on being an approachable manager who has compassion and has always integrated well into a team, maintaining good relationships with everyone, allowing for an open and honest working environment, and enabling me to encourage teamwork and a happy workplace.

Due to the nature of my current role being split between clinical leadership and managerial leadership I am an excellent multitasker, and I am efficient at managing and completing multiple projects at once

I am excellent at adapting to change and I am mouldable. I believe my clinical and managerial leadership gives me the advantage of understanding the clinical aspects of a service while also being able to affectively communicate with senior managers.

As part of my continuous professional development in managerial leadership, I have completed the in-house trust line management development programme, allowing me to feel confident in nip in the bud conversations, enabling and empowering people’s performance, driving improvement, supporting staff attendance, managing concerns and complains and focusing on developing and retaining talent.

With some early guidance and opportunities to develop within the post, I believe I would be an excellent addition to your team in the business manager role, using my wide range of transferrable skills.

• In this role I continued to work as an autonomous podiatrist with a special interest in wound care and started gaining leadership experience by mentoring newly qualified podiatrists and students, fostering career development through expert guidance and support.

This was my first NHS job role and was a pivotal point in my career; I started as a band 5 relitively new graduate and found a special interest in wound care, progressing to a band 6 within six months of being in post. I have continued my interest in wound care and progressed in this area throughout my career to date.

I completed my podiatry degree in 2010 and went straight to Australia to work for a year. I worked at La Tribe University in Melbourne as a clinical facilitator, teaching the students in clinic; I also worked in a sexual health clinic, providing podiatry treatments to patients who were HIV positive and had podiatry-related problems. This was a great start to my career and provided great life experience, which I brought back with me to start a career working in the NHS.