LatestfromourAHPPAG

My name ’ s Danni Bear and as the Chair of the AHP Professional Advisory Group (PAG) I wanted to introduce you to the group andtellyouabitaboutwhatwe’reuptothisyear

The current AHP PAG includes 7 members; four Speech and LanguageTherapists(SarahWallace,EileenKelly,GemmaJones and Carmel Richardson) two Occupational Therapists (James BruceandClaireRock)andoneDietitian(Me!)

Where are the Physiotherapists?! I hear you ask do not fear, theyhaveaseparatePAGandyoucanreadallaboutthegreat worktheyaredoingonourblog

We are in close contact with the Physio PAG to ensure that we have well rounded discussions and are as inclusive as possible inthedecisionsthatwemakeonbehalfofallAHPs

The majority of the current PAG were elected in 2021 and we havebeenverybusysince

One of our main priorities was to secure representation from Occupational Therapy and we were very fortunate to have coopted James and Claire into the PAG early this year As we provide insight advice and guidance to the Intensive Care Society (ICS) for all things to do with AHPs working in Critical Care,itsveryimportantforustobeabletofairlyandaccurately represent all professions working in critical care under the AHP umbrellasothiswasagreatachievementforus We'realsovery excitedtohaveelectedthreenewmemberswhichyoucanread aboutonpage10

Wehavehadareallybusyyearcontributingtomultiplestreams within the ICS We are really proud to have provided significant input into the strategy for 2023-2027 to ensure that AHPs are represented throughout This was an interesting exercise where we had some time with Sandy Mather, Society Chief Executive to talk through priorities and rank them It led to some excellent discussions and was a great way to begin to understand more aboutthevaluestheSocietyholds

Besides contributing to the strategy, we were heavily involved in the State of Art Congress for 2022 and 2023 Our PAG session on multi-professional careers was really well received last year so we brought it back for this year! We also contributed to sessions on workforce, management of high flow nasal oxygen, nutrition and helped with chairing duties and abstract/poster judging SOA is a great way to really showcase the multiprofessionalteamsothisisanimportantyearlyeventforus

Contributing to the wider education programme for the Society is high on our AHP PAG agenda and we have Eileen and James representing us on the Education committee Our aim is to ensurethatthereismulti-professionalrepresentationoneachof the education events (where appropriate) and you’ll see some greatAHPspeakersatmostoftheupcomingeducationalevents thisyear

Our biggest piece of work for the coming year will be contributing to the AHP Capability Framework which is a project inpartnershipwithNHSElectandNHSE Atpresent,interviewsare underway for the professional lead posts for each profession and following that the clinical groups will be formed This is a really great opportunity for us to build on AHP professional development framework and the profession specific pillars that so much work went into On this note, I can’t end without mentioningthattheOTpillarwaspublishedlastyear,completing the four main AHP groups (dietetics SLT physio and OT) for this piece of work We’re looking forward to seeing where this wider piece of work leads and hope that it is beneficial to all of us workingincriticalcare

Overall IcansaythatbeingtheChairoftheAHPPAGgivesmea lot of professional satisfaction as I get to work closely with my AHP colleagues and learn from them as we aim to ensure we havestrongvoicewithintheUKcriticalcarelandscape

The Intensive Care Society is a truly multi-professional society and it’s amazing to feel that our voices are heard and that we are supported in our endeavours We would love you to hear from you so feel free to reach out and say hi - please let us know if there is anything that you think we could do to better representyou