Passing Microsoft Excel Advanced!

16^th October 2015- 30^th October 2015

Recently I have been working on a presentation for our CQUIN workshops that we hold each year with our providers. The workshops enable us to discuss with our providers potential CQUINs for the following year and generate innovative ideas whilst ensuring the CQUINs are realistic for the provider to achieve.

I was feeling adventurous when creating the presentation and used “Prezi” which is relatively new presentation software, instead of the traditional PowerPoint! I hadn't used Prezi before, but it was much more straightforward than I thought and I am very pleased with the outcome! It helps to create a unique and engaging presentation. I will definitely use Prezi in my final year at university when I do presentations in my seminars to tutors and colleagues.

I’ve continued working on the Performance section of the CCG website which is almost finished. I think it is much clearer and easier now for a member of the public to find out how our CCG monitors quality and be able to understand the array of measures used to do this. I’ve also been working a great deal on the Practice Nurse area on the CCG website along with Kate from the Communications team. The nurses in Eastern Cheshire will have access to information on PGDs, the training and education events they attend, policies and protocols and have a 'News' section. My website designing skills have definitely progressed!

I am very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to enhance my personal development skills whilst on my placement. This week I went on an Advanced Microsoft Excel course. It was an extremely beneficial course and I learnt a lot including: validation rules, formula precedents and dependents, error checking, watch windows, protection, complex functions, pivot tables/charts and macros. I am pleased to say I have passed this course! It will be of great use for my role at the CCG as I often create reports and use excel. It will also be of great use when I return to university and in future job roles.

Also this week, I created a commissioning intentions survey for the patients in Eastern Cheshire in order to hear their opinions on what they think should be commissioned. I will be working with the Communications and Engagement Team to promote and encourage patients to take the survey.

In addition to this, I joined a WebEx on Quality Improvement along with my manager Andrew. I was surprised to find that it covered concepts I learnt in one of my modules during my second year of university such as ideas from Deming and Ishikawa.  I wrote an essay for this module which talked in depth about Deming, Ishikawa and their influence on quality improvement. Therefore it was very interesting to see that theoretical studies such as this are applied to business on a daily basis and are adopted by members of staff in the NHS!