Nicola Ballingall
Nicola is an Improvement Advisor and QI Coach in the Quality Improvement department supporting our Forensics Service Directorate and Corporate Service.
Nicola studied illustration at Loughborough and Michigan Universities and now enjoys bringing creativity to her Quality Improvement work. She began her career in social care in a children’s educational charity in Uganda. She has worked in St Mungo’s hostels and in home care with Mencap. In India she volunteered to improve waste management systems. In 2016 she joined Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust as a Social Worker in the older adults division. When the Trust formed their Quality Improvement Hub in 2018 she became a full-time Quality Improvement Coach and took a lead on service user involvement.
An Improvement Advisor role involves:
- Extra support for those projects working
on one of the Trust priority workstreams - Expertise in improvement methods and tools
Their responsibilities are:
- Attending and help coordinate the monthly directorate QI forums
- Teaching staff and service users & carers in improvement methods and tools
- Strategic support for directorate in defining improvement priorities, aligning QI work, building capability
- Regular supervision sessions in each directorate with QI coaches
- Alert clinical/service director and sponsors of projects that are not progressing or where support structure is weak
A QI Coach role involves:
- Coaching QI teams within directorates, meeting with the team regularly
- Deeper knowledge of improvement methods and tools
Their responsibilities are:
- Help engage people and teams in QI
- Support project teams to develop ideas and strategy, using QI tools, and advise on how to complete project documentation
- Support project teams in using QI methodology, including PDSA cycles and data over time
- Provide monthly update on team progress to sponsor
- Teach and explain use of QI tools and methods
- Attend supervision with QI lead
