Love in the NHS Stories of Caring, Kindness, and Compassion

Love in the NHS shows how acts of caring, compassion, courage, kindness and excellence abound in the NHS. Every day thousands of these acts go unreported, unnoticed. This book shines a light on how the innate love between human beings manifests in the setting of healthcare. The bulk of the book comprises real stories of positivity, shared by NHS staff through a positive reporting system called Learning from Excellence. This initiative was launched in 2014, partly in response to the negativity associated with the media?s approach to reporting NHS activity. The philosophy behind the initiative is based on the fact that the majority of healthcare interactions resulting in rewarding connections, loving care of the patients and successful outcomes, yet we have a tendency to focus on the minority of events where this does not happen. By doing this we miss the opportunity to gain insights from work where there has been real collaboration, connection, and success. Since launching the initiative in April 2014 in a single site, Learning from Excellence has spread widely across the NHS and beyond. During the spread of the initiative, we have learned that the reported examples of excellence often highlight non-technical, positive attributes of human behavior. This manifests in many ways, including compassion, generosity and kindness. In short, the reports are short stories of love in the NHS.

The book contains a selection of stories from Learning from Excellence initiative, arranged in themes, with commentary from the authors. The philosophy of the initiative is also explained, along with a description of how we use Appreciative Inquiry to gain a deeper understanding of some of the reports. The purpose of the book is to inspire the reader, and to show an alternative view of the NHS. The book is a counter commentary to the pervasive negativity characterizing the media?s reporting of the NHS. It is uplifting, positive, and unashamedly celebratory. The rapid spread and uptake of Learning from Excellence is evidence that the time is right for this publication ? people want to read these stories.

Foreword. Introduction. The Stories of Love in the NHS. The Learning from Excellence Movement – its origin. The Philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry. How Learning from Excellence Has Spread. Conclusion. Brief History of the NHS. Appreciative Inquiry Exercise

Robin Shohet co-founded the Centre for Supervision and Team Development, specializing in training staff to learn to supervise and build safe effective teams. He is the co-author of Supervision in the Helping Professions (4^th Edition, 2012) which has sold over 100,000 copies and been translated into eight languages. He has edited four other books, Passionate Medicine, Passionate Supervision, Supervision as Transformation and Supervision in the Medical Profession. He has edited special editions of the Humanistic Psychology journal and Self and Society and contributed to Therapy Today and other journals. Having started his career as a residential social worker in 1976 in a very supportive work environment, he has been committed to helping to create teams that bring out the best in each other and their client group.