This month we introduce Occupational Therapy Expert Witness, Alexander Heaps, who became an...
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MSc Community Nursing Practice Teacher, DipHE Nursing Studies, PG Dip Specialist Practitioner Community, V100 Nurse Prescriber, Queen's Nurse
Since gaining my nursing qualification in 1994, I have gained experience in both hospital and community clinical environments. I decided to focus on District and Community nursing and subsequently completed a Masters degree in District Nursing gaining a commendation level pass. I have spent the last number of years working in district nursing teams covering a wide range of socio economic groups across a variety of inner city and rural communities. This means I have extensive experience of dealing with patients ranging from the age of 18 to centenarians including those with learning difficulties and disabilities.
From November 2015 to August 2020 I managed a number of District Nursing teams, before taking up a position of Head of Quality and Performance in September 2020, achieving Queen’s Nurse status in 2021. In 2022 I was also retained as a specialist advisor for the CQC.
My key responsibilities are to oversee the management of activities relating to quality and performance and identify system wide learning:
• Quality; incident reporting, patient safety, patient experience, patient outcomes, clinical audit, CQC readiness, health and safety, risk management, investigation and learning, people participation and carers strategy.
• Performance; outcomes framework and contract reporting including financial obligations.
I ensure the delivery of services in line with national and local organisational policies providing holistic, patient centred care. This requires me to not only understand the technical elements but also translate these into practical guidance and procedures to be delivered by nursing staff. I work with clinical teams to identify lessons learned from serious untoward incidents, clinical incidents, complaints and safeguarding concerns. I support the teams to complete peer reviews to ensure quality holistic documentation, identifying areas of concern or trends in the clinical care and documentation and introducing solutions to ensure quality reporting is maintained. I am a trained after-action reviewer, this involves the critical analysis of patient’s notes prior to discussion at senior management groups, to determine if they were unavoidable or, if avoidable, what lessons learnt can be captured and implemented. Within my role, I am responsible for reviewing clinical reports from a range of teams and grades to ensure compliance and completeness. This requires me to maintain up to date knowledge of regulations and procedures, deploying this effectively to ensure that errors or omissions are quickly identified and appropriate remedial actions undertaken. I also investigate and resolve both formal and informal complaints that are brought against the district nursing teams. I provide feedback to both the patients but also the staff involved in order that the issues are addressed promptly and any clinical practice errors are addressed going forward. I take personal responsibility for my CPD, completing bank district nursing shifts, attending conferences or workshops as appropriate to ensure I maintain up to date skills and knowledge on matters relevant to my specialisms.
I accept instructions from both claimant and defendant solicitors and insurers. I have undergone formal training in the medico-legal process and am fully aware of my responsibilities under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) pertaining to expert witnesses.