Over 4,000 years ago, ancient Babylonian were said to have started the tradition of New Year’s resolutions and reflections, which has since taken many different forms and continues to be part of our lives today. At Locum’s Nest, we’re continuing the tradition! The team has spent some time reflecting on what a rollercoaster of a year 2022 has been and the impact of collaboration across the NHS.

As the temperature drops and the days grow darker, it’s more important than ever to focus on being kind to our minds and looking after our winter wellbeing. My name is Dr Stephanie Slater, I’m a GP and You Okay, Doc? (YOD) ambassador. I was diagnosed with Anxiety and Depression in 2019. These days I’m on a mission to end the stigma and I encourage everybody to look after their mental health, just as they would their physical.

Lara Houchou, our Marketing Engagement Specialist, reflects on this year’s NHS Providers conference - one of the first big F2F events since the beginning of the pandemic. As old colleagues reunited in 3D glory for the first time in a long time, a renewed drive and passion for collaboration, learning, and connecting also followed.

We’ve been working with North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust since 2018 on various workstreams to support the Trust’s workforce improvement and help overcome its challenges. In the spirit of collaboration, we are using our platform to celebrate their cooperative spirit and share best practices around workforce management.

In this article, we show how NHS Trusts can use digital workforce solutions to work towards the NHS’s ambitious target of becoming net zero by 2045. Locum’s Nest workforce technology offers substantial benefits to NHS organisations by eradicating paper-based processes, digitising and simplifying processes. All this ultimately helps reduce CO2 emissions in the long term and supports the NHS on its journey to achieve net zero by 2045.

Recently I attended the London South Bank University (LSBU) Dame Elizabeth Anionwu Annual Lecture, ‘Celebrating Inclusivity in Nursing and Midwifery’. The lecture commemorates Dame Elizabeth, declared as one of the 70 most influential nurses and midwives in the history of the NHS, receiving countless honours & awards for her work.

In this article, we highlight how NHS Trusts have increased flexibility, agility and transparency with their workforce through a committed bank-first approach, benefiting the Trust and healthcare professionals. Through every step of the funnel, we show how NHS Trusts have the best possible chance of filling shifts with their staff bank in a user-friendly, efficient and straightforward way.

The Co-Founder of Scrubbed In and Peerr shares his story from growing up to studying medicine and becoming an entrepreneur in the field of socialising education. “Fresh faced and straight out of college, I entered King’s College London for the first time to study Medicine. It just happened that the first guy I sat down next to was Amz, little did I know it would be the start of so many amazing things to come.”

The Kent and Medway ICS is forming its cloud-based medics collaborative bank, enabled by Locum’s Next, to allow clinicians to cross-cover shifts across 6 NHS Trusts - exponentially expanding the size of individual Trusts’ staff pool, and ultimately deliver more patient care hours.

Identified by the Financial Times as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe in 2021, Locum’s Nest has already saved the NHS over £750m in the last 5 years. On top of that, our data shows we will save in excess of the 10% required by NHSE, so why stop at 10%?

The transition from medical student to doctor is often a turbulent time. In this article, Locum Paediatric Doctor and You Okay, Doc? Ambassador, Dr Natasha Holmes, shares some advice and resources on how to get through this challenging time.

In this article, we share why flexibility is of paramount importance to the immediate future of the NHS and look at key data metrics coming from the recent NHS Staff Survey, signifying an undoubtedly higher demand for more flexible working across the NHS.

Ross Elledge, Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon & ‘You Okay, Doc?’ Ambassador, writes about his experience with stress as a healthcare professional, and shares his tools for managing stress including mindfulness and tips about meditation.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, You Okay, Doc? Ambassador Dr Emily Palmer writes about why medicine is a lonely profession and gives her top tips on how to best manage loneliness.

Read how The Digital Collaborative Bank, powered by Locum’s Nest, enabled 10 NHS Trusts to fill more vacant shifts, which contributed to positive outcomes in a challenging year. This highlights how the use of workforce technology with collaboration allows Trusts to share a more expansive and forever growing pool of workers.

Locum’s Nest Co-Founder and NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow, Dr Ahmed Shahrabani, discusses his organisation’s bespoke response to help tackle the care backlog at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust.

Switching off from work can, paradoxically, be incredibly stressful. This is especially true for those working high-demand jobs in fast-paced environments where work never sleeps. It’s often difficult to turn off our work brain, making it easy for those pesky, intrusive thoughts to sneak home with us and form a chorus inside our heads.

Mental health organisations are facing a unique combination of concerns which have only been worsened by the pandemic. In this article, we share the challenges facing the NHS mental health workforce - and how innovative workforce management technologies such as Locum’s Nest, can help to overcome them.

Burnout levels are higher than ever and yet the pressures of the winter months and the new COVID-19 wave continue. Sara Campin, Founder & CEO of The Nourish App, shares 9 simple mindset tips and practical strategies to help you safeguard your sanity and find more work-life balance, even in the midst of the current pressures.

We know that technology does not work without the people to back it up and engage with it. So how can we ensure these time-saving and potentially life-saving solutions are successfully adopted? In this article we explore the importance of change management within the NHS, and how we, as a leading healthcare tech provider, support organisations through this challenging process.