My healthcare journey began in the Whittington Hospital in 1985 where I began my career with the NHS as a Registered General Nurse. My work has always been an important priority as it was the foundation for me as a single parent since 1998. I changed careers in 1996 and joined the Irish Ambulance Service. I was the first female “ambulance driver” in County Longford, Ireland. I progressed through the ranks to become a Paramedic tutor and Advanced Paramedic. I also collaborated with the Pre Hospital Care council as an examiner.

I returned to the UK in 2011. I am a passionate healthcare leader.  Over the last 10 years, I led significant 111 improvements in a London provider to include anonymous freedom to speak, just culture, red flag training, civility in the workplace, wellbeing in the classroom and significant system improvements. I set up a national shared learning forum for all 111 services to benefit from each other following incident learning. I have a keen interest in human factors. I worked alongside NHS external stakeholders over many years supporting and sharing ideas to make a difference within 111 services in England.

In August 2021, after 36 years in healthcare, I met Andy Gilbert and the Go M.A.D. team where the freshness of the methodology to capture your thinking and create a different groove in the mind has been life changing for me. I am currently experiencing a new beginning. The release of helpful energy  at the Go M.A.D. HQ in Leicestershire, was something I had never experienced before.  

I bring with me valuable experience in pre hospital, primary and secondary care areas and have first-hand experience of how Go M.A.D. can transform a team. Using the evidence-based tools to help yourself and others think, led to designing a wellbeing toolkit for staff in a 111 call centre, wellbeing champions and mindfulness in the classroom. It led to a different language being used in a pressure pot environment that meant it was ok to be anxious or stressed as staff could use the wellbeing tools to have a time out. That made a difference, improving staff engagement and empowered ideas which are now part of service protocols.

The tools can be used as part of a one-to-one, team meetings along with the self-talk that goes on in your head. Effective thinking is the key to success, unlocking full thinking power enables different actions and therefore improved results. It’s a proven technique with evidence based research over 25 years and is used within the NHS and other organisations around the world in 40 countries.

If you need to engage, equip, empower, evaluate and encourage your people to think differently and take responsibility for making change happen, contact me at: helen.eivers@gomadthinking.com.