After 24 years at Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust, Claire Cox – Patient Safety Learning’s Associate Director of Patient Safety – will be leaving her post to join Guys and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as a Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Manager. Claire will continue in her role at Patient Safety Learning but reduce her hours to one day a week.
Claire’s passion for patient safety was first ignited when she began working as a Critical Care Outreach Sister in 2011. After winning the Kent Surrey and Sussex Patient Safety Prize in 2016 for her work in cardiac arrest and medical emergency teams, Claire went on to complete the Darzi fellowship in April 2019. It was around this time that Claire began working with Patient Safety Learning.
Claire’s experience, both on the front-line and as a patient safety expert, makes her an obvious choice for her new role as Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Manager.
Claire said, “Taking up this opportunity of a change in role will enable me to influence patient safety from a slightly different angle. In my current role as a Critical Care Outreach Nurse, I don’t have enough time to make meaningful change where it is needed. My new role will allow me time to make improvements to patient safety across the Trust. I’m delighted to continue working with Patient Safety Learning in this new way.”
Claire will continue to build on her experience as she commences her new role, and, as she gains new insights, so these will help to inform and shape Patient Safety Learning’s continued work towards the patient-safe future. Practically, this will include:
- writing blogs that focus on topical areas of patient safety, e.g. culture, and the disparity between ‘work as imagined’ and ‘work as done’
- providing clinical expertise on patient safety topics, including support to the wider Patient Safety Learning team
- contributing to webinars and other Patient Safety Learning events
- identifying specialist content and stakeholders for the hub
- engaging with front-line staff to promote patient safety and human factors/systems thinking
- leading and supporting patient safety and quality improvement programmes through Patient Safety Learning partnerships.
Patient Safety Learning Chief Executive, Helen Hughes, commented: “‘Claire is a fantastic advocate for patient and staff safety. We’re so delighted that Claire will continue supporting our work at Patient Safety Learning as she moves to Guys and St Thomas'. It’s not goodbye but congratulations! And we look forward to sharing with the hub members the insights and good practice that Claire will gain from her new role.”
