Day 28: Team building. Start with your own house.

Slieve Surgery is a dinky team and I've seen the practice population grow rapidly over the past two years. In recent months we've seen changes in staff for various reasons. However there are some consistent stars throughout these challenging times. From the moment I met the team I knew the girls were special. Yes, the team are mainly female. Only 2 male GP Partners. Having worked in various surgeries throughout my career journey, I knew there was so much potential at Slieve to be even more amazing!

Can you tell who the jokers are???

Every year #TeamSlieve get together to celebrate the end of the financial year and at Christmas. Occasionally there's a sprinkling of mini socials in-between. The past few months have been tough for us and I think we have all felt the pressure and affects of change. I always try to make time to chat to everyone in the team. They mean a lot to me. What I see are real stars that often lack the confidence to see their own brilliance. I hope with my new Clinical Director role I can help and support them more so they can realise their own ambitions and unleash their true potential.

It's Sunday and after many attempts to hold a date in the calendar. Today's the today where we clamber onto a mini bus and head to Alton Towers for an ultimate team building session. Not all the team enjoy fast adrenaline rides but we have encouraged everyone to come regardless. We are one team after all. There's only a handful of people that really couldn't make today. We miss did them as we all share funny anecdotes on the mini bus. Today will be a test of stamina, compassion, empathy, courage and bravery. Whether it will be spinning barrels or jaw-dropping triple loop rollercoasters, we are a mix of personalities and the objective of today to get to know one another better to build a stronger team.

This is Ruby. No matter what she keeps coming back for more.

No matter how big the workload gets for PCNs the core functions still rests with individual teams. All operations and processes need to be efficient and have purpose. Communication amongst team members and our own relationships that we develop, are vital for PCNs to evolve organically. It's important within our team that our vision is shared and compliments that vision of what we hold for the PCN. No surprise to me, we all get on really well today, loads of laughter to point where we're snorting like pigs, crying and dribbling. We offer support and couragement to get on the rides and when some come off the rides a little green, there's compassion and empathy at the ready. We have battled with long queues, searching for food as a group of 15 and desperate toilet pit stops. Despite getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning to make the trip. It's all been worth it and going by the ridiculous influx of the group's WhatsApp messages. We have all had the most 'bostin' time!

It's so important to invest time and effort with the people we work closely with. For most of us, the time we spend with work colleagues will be greater than that with family or loved ones. I'm relieved to report no major incidents happened today, some episodes of vomiting (post rides), only one pair of sunnies lost on Galactica and we even managed to get some of the most ride-fearing members onto Wicker Man. I love #TeamSlieve.