As part of our Day in the Life series of colleague stories, we’re introducing you to Catherine Campbell, Clinical Delivery Lead (CDL), Non-Medical Prescriber (NMP) Lead and Pain Advanced Practice Physiotherapist (APP). Here Catherine tells us more about a day in her life at Connect…
Tell us briefly about your professional background:
Hi, I’m Catherine and I am the Clinical Delivery Lead (CDL) for our services in Coventry, Shropshire, and Wolverhampton. I job-share this CDL role with Matt Hall. I am a physiotherapist, qualifying from Coventry University in 2003. Matt and I actually went to university together in Coventry and then 20 years later are now working alongside each other as a job share, what a small world it is! My speciality is in pain management, I am also the Non-Medical Prescribing Lead at Connect.
How long have you been at Connect Health and what attracted you to the role?
I started working for Connect Health following the acquisition of InHealth Pain Management Solutions (PMS) in 2020. I joined PMS in 2016 as a Clinical Specialist in the Pain Management Service in Coventry. I was attracted to this role to move away from a medically-focused pain service model in the hospital, where I was working to a business dedicated to providing pain management in the community and working alongside like-minded health professionals.
What does a typical day entail?
A typical day for me usually involves a mix of meetings, leadership time and clinical work. Most of my working week is home-based. Clinically, I mainly do telephone medication reviews, supporting patients living with persistent pain to make informed decisions around their pain medications, this can often lead to conversations around reducing medications they have been taking a long time with minimal effect.
As part of the CDL role and NMP role I often have Teams meetings booked internally with the Leadership Group or more locally with the service team. Stakeholder engagement is a key part of my role so there are a healthy number of external meetings, with the ICB for example. A consequence of a meeting is that there is always an action! I have to make sure that I schedule time in my diary to complete any actions or projects that I am involved with. I’ve recently complete the CDL development programme where there is a focus on prioritisation, delegation, and the importance of focused time.
Has your role changed/develop since joining Connect? How have you adapted?
Since joining Connect my role has significantly changed. Within Connect I have found that there are a much wider range of business functions to consult with and work alongside e.g. Governance and L&D. I have found that this has broadened my approach and increased my awareness of how different functions need to operate together.
The main skill required for this is communication and organisation (time management!). This is something I’m always working to improve on, but I think being part of Connect has given me the opportunity to stretch myself in this role.
What influence/change have you brought within your role?
Within the CDL role the main change that Matt and I have brought about is the integration of the Wolverhampton MSK Team with the central Pain Services in Coventry and Shropshire. We hold joint pain MDT meetings on a weekly basis across the region to discuss complex cases and have joint face-to-face meetings. These have gone really well, and it’s been great to bring together a mix of different clinicians (nurses, physios, wellbeing practitioners and sports therapists) from different specialities to discuss things like service improvement. Within the NMP Lead role I have set up regular meetings for the NMPs in the business to support case discussion or discuss new guidelines when they’re developed. I also set up a NMP study day recently which is something I am hoping to continue to build upon in the future to support the CPD of all of our prescribers.
To find out more about working at Connect Health, contact people@connecthealth.co.uk.
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