Not another new publication?
Everyone involved in creating something new has a belief that what they are doing is needed, that it is something that people have been waiting for. They assume that others will be just as enthusiastic as they are. There is always a danger of forgetting that people in the NHS are being deluged by paper from all quarters.
We were no different as we planned to create ImpAct - so it's been encouraging to get messages from many readers expressing support for our efforts. We've had encouraging messages by email, by letter, by phone and personally at conferences.
Many people have said that ImpAct fills a big hole and that there is no other publication that concentrates on reporting on the lessons people are learning about implementing change. The response to local initiatives we have featured has been equally encouraging, with people getting lots of phone calls and letters asking for more details and copies of the papers they have produced.
But we know the danger of complacency and are planning to explore ways that we can evaluate more thoroughly the reactions and responses to our efforts and find ways to improve ImpAct. We now know also that impact is a popular word in the NHS - there are several other impact projects.
Who should read ImpAct ?
Two questions that a number of people have raised are who is ImpAct for? and why is it different from Bandolier? Our view is that:
- Bandolier is of prime interest to practising clinicians - with the expectation that (practice and service) managers will be interested and learn from it, whereas
- ImpAct is of prime interest of managers - but also of interest to clinicians so that they can better understand issues about implementing change etc.
We hope both bulletins will interest those involved in education, training and research.
In this issue of ImpAct, the two cardiac projects should be of particular interest to clinicians and managers. The sexual health service case study will interest service managers and the training case study will interest those involved in training, and also GPs. The way in which walking for a healthy heart was introduced for older adults is brilliant, and a superb example of how different parts of the public services can work together with the community.