Senior leader reflections: Tom Farmah

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust runs Good Hope, Heartlands, Queen Elizabeth and Solihull hospitals, Birmingham Chest Clinic, and Solihull community services.

When I finished college I had no idea what I wanted to do. I wasn’t particularly drawn to anything, and I was really worried about the rising university fees and the prospect of not being able to get a job afterwards. I heard a recruitment advert on the radio advertising for nursing students one day and felt that this route offered a secure and diverse career opportunity – so I applied.

I didn’t really have a clue what I was getting into. I had no healthcare experience whatsoever, knew very little about nursing and I was very much still a teenager. I remember in my first few months feeling miles behind my fellow students in terms of the basics - I had no idea what a commode or bed pan was. I remember not knowing how to make a hospital bed or ‘hospital corners’ – I barely even made my own bed! It was quite a challenge to begin with, but I very quickly realised this was the right profession for me.

I quickly came to love the social aspect of nursing, as well as the caring nature of the role. Nursing is a job where you have got to work together as a team and support diverse groups of people; and the profession attracts caring and sociable people.

Statistics show that men make up around 11% of the nursing workforce nationally, which means as a gender we are massively underrepresented. Given the national nursing workforce shortages at the moment, I am a huge advocate for more men getting into nursing.?There are lots of misconceptions about what it takes to be a good nurse; and it is often wrongly considered as a female profession.?The opportunities available in nursing are both broad and diverse, requiring different skills and attributes which I believe more men should consider, when looking at career choices. Fundamentally, nurses are caring and compassionate people – so I recommend anyone with a caring and kind nature to look at nursing as a career.

When I qualified I undertook staff nurse roles in acute and emergency medicine, and later on became a clinical nurse specialist, and then a clinical site manager.?I undertook training to become an advanced clinical practitioner (ACP) and was one of the first ever ACPs at my previous trust; which was a fantastic opportunity. I quickly learnt that I enjoyed building and developing teams and wanted to pursue a leadership role to further develop my skills. I therefore joined UHB in a matron role; supporting infectious diseases and women’s services.

I currently work as Deputy Director of Nursing; overseeing and supporting a number of services.?This includes critical care, short stay surgery, laboratories, outreach and pain management. My role is to support the operational day-to-day running and strategy for these services as part of a collaborative management team, consisting of doctors, operational managers, healthcare scientists and allied health professionals.?My role is really diverse and includes supporting workforce, finance, governance, strategy as well as quality and safety.?The most enjoyable and rewarding element of my role is supporting teams, particularly inspiring and engaging both individuals and teams to develop and drive forwards their ideas for supporting our patients and enhancing care quality.

Across my career I have worked alongside many inspiring and amazing individuals.?UHB is a large organisation with lots of talent – so there are lots of people to learn from.?Leadership is not about having one approach; you need to have a toolkit of different skills and approaches that you can use depending on the situation you are presented with. My advice is to always learn from others; identify role models and people that inspire you. I try and take the ‘best bits’ from people that have impressed or inspired me across my career, and adopt them into my approach.?Importantly, none of us are ever the ‘finished article’ and we are always growing and developing; so my advice is to always reflect, accept constructive feedback and be honest about how things could have been done differently.

For me, I have always found that being compassionate and understanding the emotions of others is one of the most critical elements of being a good leader. It is important to understand that in leadership positions particularly, what you say and do can have a big impact on your teams. You need to be aware of what influence you are having on others; but importantly how others influence you.?Good leadership is about how you engage, motivate and influence the people that you are working with.

At the moment, the NHS is very busy and facing several challenges, and we all have to change and evolve our teams and services from time-to-time to meet the needs of our patients.?Across my career I have been involved in, and affected by, many different major changes in my teams and services; and I know how destabilising and worrying change can be.?I also know that when change is done badly, the impact can be far-reaching.?I personally always try and involve as many people as I can in decision-making when change is proposed. The more people you can speak to regarding a change, the more honest views you get, and the higher the likelihood of change being meaningful or successful.?This is the biggest piece of advice I would offer to anybody who wants to introduce a change or improvement.

One of our UHB values is to be kind. For me, this is the little things that we do every day that make a difference.?As a manager, I often check in on the wellbeing of my staff and do my best to support them when I recognise that they might be under pressure; asking if I can support their workload.?However, it makes me feel especially valued when the people I manage are comfortable enough to check in on me, and recognise when I am perhaps not having a good day, and ask ‘what can I do to help?’.?It is these simple acts of kindness I will always appreciate.?

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