Lynda Mutter 

“Believe it or not, I wanted to do hotel management and catering. I had been accepted at Queen’s Margaret’s College in Edinburgh to do hospitality management before I, thankfully, had lightbulb moment and changed my mind to pursue nursing.” In hindsight, it’s not that different; it’s about understanding what’s important to the person and striving to provide the best service (care) possible. It’s about anticipating needs, connection, and empathy.”

“My placements really reinforced my choice. My earliest professional mentors were two sisters in Gynaecology at the Victoria infirmary. They were both midwives and I went onto study midwifery with the intention of going back to join them. That changed after working in the Special Care Baby Unit and working in our community liaison service, helping parents who felt vulnerable when they went home. Supporting them to cope with the emotional impact of having had a premature baby and with practical tasks like tube feeding and home oxygen. I knew community was the choice for me.”

“I try to model excellence both in knowledge base and in values that’s support safe, innovative and compassionate spaces for teams to do their best work. In community settings the stakes are higher, you’re often working alone, making decisions and dynamically assessing risk and often navigating a complex social context. The benefit is that care can be more tailored to the person and good patient experience is the foundation of often long-term relationships with patients and their families; it’s a real honour.”

“I’m now in a service manager post, actively involved in the development of teams and services, working with the district nursing service, diabetic liaison nurses and a multidisciplinary team including nurses, physiotherapists, OT, pharmacists and dieticians. My overarching goal is to work out how we collectively create conditions for excellence and wellbeing.”

“One of Brené’s concepts ‘The Marble Jar’ teaches us that trust is something built up slowly, one marble at a time. It’s often small things that constitutes a marble, like really listening and demonstrating you care. I am quite new to the role, and I have a lot to learn, but it’s the perfect opportunity for me to listen, ask naïve questions and fill the team’s marble jar.”

“Right now, I’m investing in service improvement and that starts with the wellbeing and engagement of the staff. I listen to escalations, help them manage risk and offer them the opportunities to make changes. I share the vision of us doing great work, in great teams and supporting great outcomes. I acknowledge that it’s tough just now, but by all working together we can be better, do better. I try to steer away from a “them and us” narrative of clinicians and managers to just “we”. How can we work together to be great? I think this is the types of behaviours that alleviate stress and build trust.”

“Insecurity and inner criticism used to interfere with my confidence and decision making. I would hold back out of fear of criticism, mainly from myself! Marianne Williamson’s writes that “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”, which really struck an emotional chord with me, and helped me explore the edges of my fears.”

“Central to this exploration was my Coach Kate. I really valued the co-creative coaching space and the support of my cohort of Queen’s Nurses. My mum died unexpectedly shortly after I started my QN journey and although it was a huge shock, I credit the programme with helping mepi not just cope with my loss, but grow. It felt like a spiritual awakening secondary to my loss, and I felt able to process the impact of it in a restorative way.”

“Having meaningful conversations with the teams is key to excellence and sometimes that means being opened to hearing the negatives. The “what’s important to you” conversation is foundational to supporting both patients and staff and I encourage “a warts and all” approach in that it’s better to know how people feel and think so you can proceed having all the information.”

“I find I am also more able to be myself as a leader, to be authentic and bring my whole self to work. Jumping headfirst into the QN programme has helped explore my creative and spiritual side and I now take that into my work every day. I listen more and take more time to connect and to feedback and ask for feedback. I am more able to articulate a vision not just of excellence but of safe places where we can all be open, honest, kind and generous and be purposeful. We need to create teams where our wellbeing is enhanced not diminished by the work we do, and of course this translates into better patient care; it’s a win win. Covid has been difficult but good teams and work that we love, can make it all feel easier. Great places to work and excellent care, that’s the dream!”