#TeamNorthMid blogs

We've spoken to Dr Akudo Okereafor, Paediatrics Specialty Registrar and Clinical Fellow in Parent Education and Paediatric Emergency Medicine, about her role as a leader within the Trust. We're celebrating Women's History Month throughout March so look out for more interviews with other incredible women. 

1) Could you tell us about your journey, about how you came to be in your role(s) and what it involves in terms of leading others?

I am a few roles; Paediatric Doctor, Clinical Fellow in Parent Education, Co-founder of ABC Parents, Quality Improvement Mentor and mum of five little comedians. It was by walking in the shoes of my patients and in particular, living through the traumatic journey of my sister-in-law that I find myself on my current career path. I am proud to work in such a hardworking and committed team at North Middlesex Hospital and so I encouraged my family and friends to give birth here as I had. In just 18 months my family endured stillbirth, seizures, premature birth and cardiac arrest.  These life changing experiences gave me unique insight into being on the receiving side of NHS care and opened my eyes to gaps in family-centred care.

These experiences has driven me to address problems, engage staff and parents and incorporate quality improvement methodology where I can, to help action change. Coproduction, developing peer support, engaging stakeholders and building relationships across the sector have been phenomenal experiences and have provided me with unparalleled leadership opportunities.

2) What is the best advice you have received, and how have you used it?

 “Always have a network of support because it takes a village to raise a child”. This has been crucial advice for me personally and actually fuelled an ambition on behalf of the parents I repeatedly met in A&E. Achieving a Better Community as “ABC Parents” has been a phenomenally rewarding initiative. With such enthusiastic and generous staff and parent champions, we’ve been successfully running parent training courses free for local Haringey and Enfield residents.

3) What has been your biggest challenge and how have you overcome it?
My biggest challenge stems from my realisation that hospital is for repairs and that health is everything else at home. Knowing the high rates of child poverty and stark differences in health outcomes from the East to West of the boroughs I have been striving to increase our awareness of child poverty and develop screening to identify struggling families who can be helped by our partner organisation, Connected Communities. 
 

4) As a trust how do you feel we support women's inclusivity at work and how do we further improve inclusivity for women in the workplace?
As a trust I’ve been privileged to support this work to bridge the gap between hospital and the community.  I have been inspired by passionate and committed female staff members who have worked alongside me to help empower and educate local parents to manage their child’s health and live healthier lives. 
 

5) What advice would you pass onto the next generation of leaders?
A wise man taught me the ethos of simply trying your best. We can all strive to do our best, to work hard, to follow our passions and to help others in every way we can. Do for others as you’d want done for you. This is probably the strongest advice I could give the next generation of leaders.