Nicola Davey

Director of the Quality Improvement Clinic

Nicola is a director and founder of the Quality Improvement Clinic (QIC) of which QIClearn is a subsidiary enterprise.

She leads the design and delivery of QIClearn programmes  and excels in working with healthcare organisations to develop better patient services. In the past 3 years she has been overseen the development and use of innovative online digital learning and has integrated this into all QIClearn programmes.

She has designed, developed and delivered programmes to 1000’s of learners and has coached 100’s to complete Quality Improvement Projects in a wide range of clinical and non-clinical settings. Nicola is passionate about developing others and has helped many people develop themselves in order to teach others.

Nicola is a well-known and highly experienced quality improvement practitioner. This expertise and her passion for better services is translated into high-quality content for QIClearn participants.

A pharmacist by background she has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector. She has a post-graduate certificate in Advanced Improvement for Quality and Safety, is a trustee of the Clinical Human Factors Group and is a member of the Health Foundations College of Assessors and Q community.

Dr Heather Shearer

I am passionate about working with people to improve health and care services. I constantly seek to gain new knowledge and experience and apply reflective practices to enhance my skills.

I work part-time with Health Care Improvement Scotland supporting board members across Scotland to enhance their quality improvement skills and confidence in leading and governing organizations. I am also an Honorary Lecturer of the University of Dundee, working on their MSc in Quality Improvement.

My previous roles in the NHS have been both in England and Scotland, and in a variety of provider and commissioner roles. I also worked for some years with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and was an Associate with the Kings Fund. I have been instrumental in small teams which have developed several accredited lead level quality improvement programmes.

I am a certified facilitator of the Strengths Deployment Inventory (2016), am currently studying for a certificate in Online Learning Facilitation and completed Improvement Advisor training at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (2007). My PhD is in Psychology, from the University of Durham (2001)

Emma Adams

Health Transformation Partnership/Oxidate Consulting Ltd

As a quality improvement specialist and a Health Foundation fellow, with a MSc in Leadership in Quality Improvement, I’ve developed deep interest and passion for all things related to improving health and care.  Sometimes it can be hard to see your system from within, and despite your best efforts, know where to begin to improve it. As an experienced quality improvement coach, I provide the relational support and technical knowledge needed for teams and organisations to better understand and achieve improvements in the quality of their service.

I’ve also been a senior manager in a wide range health and social care settings in strategic, commissioner and provider roles throughout my career.  Working across complex systems, I have led the improvement of services for from older people to maternity, mental health to acute care.  I work widely across different organisations, providing coaching and facilitating at individual team level, as well as working with boards and senior leaders to develop whole systems approaches that build capacity and capability for improvement.

I love connecting and conversing with other improvers and I’m an active member of the Health Foundation’s Q community, convening a number of special interest groups and co-delivering an insight programme for Q members.

As my practice and curiosity develops, I’m developing interests in systems thinking, complexity and quality management systems and how these are influencing application of improvement science.