Blog by Victoria Butler

I have been working within the NHS in the North East of England as a Lead Physiotherapist on an acute stroke unit. The opportunity to apply for a Population Health Fellowship, funded by NHS Health Education England, in stroke pathways in the NHS Trust I am employed in felt like a very natural progression to my work.

I started the Fellowship in September 2022. Looking back, my thinking and understanding of Population Health has changed significantly.

Working in the area of my normal role but looking at it from a different perspective has been challenging and stretching in very different ways. It was very easy initially to assume that because I worked in the stroke I knew what the issues were. By using the learning from the taught part of the programme and with one to one supervision of the North Tees and Hartlepool Public Health Consultant I was supported to reflect and develop ideas and principles and change my practice to promote this within my clinical practice.

In partnership with the Fellowship sponsor organisation, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, I have been working to apply a population health approach to a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) pathway.

I have gained experience working with multiple organisations, data handling, project management and quality improvement. The Fellowship gave me the confidence to take on the role as joint Stoke Therapy Clinical Team lead at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, where I have been able to introduce a health inequality focus in Tees Valley stroke working groups.

The Fellowship has enabled me to gain a better understanding of health inequalities and how the method of ‘population health’ can be used to positively influence changes within established healthcare systems.