Mahir Khan, placement student, MA Public Health, Nottingham Trent University
Every year, the South Notts PBP invites a university student to apply for an 8–10 week placement and this year we hosted MA Public Health student Mahir Khan, who made a huge impact in the short time he was with us.
Mahir admits to not knowing a lot about how Place-Based Partnerships work when he applied for the placement. He had learned a lot about the system in general and the ambition of collaboration between different organisations and local communities, but less about how that works at Place level.
He says: “My time with South Notts PBP really opened my eyes to how collaboration works at a Place and neighbourhood level. It helped fill a gap in my knowledge and has enabled me to relate what I learnt in the classroom to what’s really happening on the ground.
“My very early observations of the work that’s happening in the community was that I could very clearly see the impact of collaborating across organisations and how breaking the historical silos could really help target the health needs of specific communities.”
As he continued his learning journey with the PBP, Mahir had the opportunity to get involved in some key projects using the premise of the ‘Building Blocks of Health’.
The ‘Building Blocks of Health’ recognise that almost every aspect of our lives impacts our health and ultimately how long we will live. This includes our jobs and homes, access to education and public transport and whether we experience poverty or discrimination.
Mahir says: “I have been involved in a range of initiatives focusing on prevention and service collaboration. One of the key projects was the integration of the building blocks in acute settings, where I worked closely with the front door integrated discharge team at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) through the processes at the point of discharge.
“I shadowed the team, reviewed their forms and came up with some amendments in the forms to incorporate some unmet social needs – such as housing, socio-economic status, social isolation – all of which can have an impact on readmission.
“I was also involved in the Healthy Hearts for Hucknall events, reviewing the delivery of NHS Health Checks. Under the guidance of PBP programme director Helen Smith, I looked at the form which was being used to collect the data from the patients and, our aim was to make it more accessible and easier to understand , especially for those with limited health literacy. Incorporating the concept of health literacy, I simplified it to make it more accessible and patient friendly, which event organisers said had a big impact on the number of people filling up the form during the event. This effort will help in identifying potential risk group”
Mahir’s work proves that by collaborating with partners, re-examining processes and making small changes can have a big impact. He also worked with Your Health Notts and reviewed materials for their weight management campaign, making constructive improvements to the campaign creative and wording.
Jill Langridge, South Notts Place-Based Partnership Clinical Lead, says: “It’s been a pleasure to have Mahir working with us over the last ten weeks. He got stuck into several projects and events across our patch and it’s clear by the level of impact of the work he has done for us that he fully understands the vision of the PBP.”
Mahir says that he’s learned a lot during his time with the partnership and he’ll take the learning back to his education and future career. He says: “What I’ll take back is that I learned how collaboration really works and how it can have a real impact on community health and patient outcomes. It’s important that there’s more of this integration because it connects everyone to a unified vision, which means better health and wellbeing for local health communities. This experience has not only shaped how I view integrated care but also how I see myself contributing to health systems in future.
“It was pleasure to work in a highly professional environment. The environment in which every team member truly wants to make a difference. It was inspiring to witness the unwavering passion of professionals all driven by shared commitment to finding real solutions for the health needs of the very communities they serve.
“I’d also like to say a massive thanks to Programme Director, Helen, for all her support and help and for sharing her knowledge and insights throughout my placement.
We wish Mahir all the best in his studies and his future career!
South Notts PBP Programme Director, Helen Smith pictured above with Mahir