VeinTrain and Public Health 

'We are all public health officers now' Sir David Nabarro 2020

We are all public health Officers 

Dr Nabarro - World Health Organisation Special Envoy Briefings

Sarah attending Dr Nabarro's online live session since March 2020 twice per week as it quickly became clear that these were to be incredibly valuable sessions to secure in the diary.  Attending for many reasons including to determine VeinTrain's business strategy following the pandemic announcement.  Here is the latest in 2021.  Masks and the power of role modelling.  A welcome comment for many of us who try to our best in walks of life to continue to do so as your contribution.  Sarah continued to attend many of Sir David Nabarro's Living Systems Leadership briefings and other events until we sadly lost David suddenly in July 2025.  We continue to share all that Sarah Learned in the time David so generously gave and 4SD led.  A remarkable leader who shared so much of his insights during his sessin wehre he mentored and supported and challenged those who attended.

Click to watch: 

Octobert 2021

It soon became apparant that we all need to be public health advocates and there was much to learn in order to work together as global citizens for all of humanity.  As 4SD adopts a live systems based approach to organisation consultancy, Sarah was able to access her experience and qualifcations in organisation-systems analysis and use this thinking for leadership. Thanks to the team at 4SD who are a huge part of the success of these briefings.

Sarah is confident in current and future operations of the business, keeping everyone safe and guiding organisations/Trainers on how to take forward training. 

Sarah taking the mic

Indeed, one specific question back in May about  way in which conference style events can return safely helped guide the direction of VeinTrain during this period of physical distancing.   Further, even if we are permitted to return or determine it is safe to deliver in classroom/closed room setting we may suddenly be thrust again, due outbreaks of the virus.   This virus is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it for a long time. Sarah is determined to ensure that education and training continues and thanks to the Flatpack innovation we have the cog in the wheel to ensure practical learning in a way that suits each organisation set up. In fact only this week we see Hillingdon hospital suffer and outbreak closing service.  Working night and day to ensure learning continues and even opening up LIVE online access, which was a challenge with a remote back office team (for their protection).  We are now working full throttle with project team focussed solely on our asynchronous online classroom for mass scale rapid deployment.  Here VeinTrainees can learn togethor practically with members from different parts of the world as a group, taking the VeinTrain journey from Novice to Expert.  We hope this can really help organisations and countries requiring an increase in capacity for venous blood sampling for antibody screen or other clinical needs without compromising the learner journey.

Sarah's questions here (above)  about blame and scapegoating and the occurrences she noticed in and around her community networks, business, healthcare and education sector, with similar patterns of behaviour internationally.  A really insightful answer with Dr Nabarro sharing how he was actually dealing with this in his media work that week. It just goes to show that even the best and most experienced find it a challange to balance ustilsing those helpful emotions without being led by them.    I think if people can realise that in these times of stress and pressure we must all pause for a moment to think and be kind while also ensure we take up our authority and build the world we want.  Now is our opportunity to be the best we can be during these very trying times. 

Above Sarah commenting about how we take our own authority during a time where there is a time, we could become dependent as followers and leave more space for leaders to take up rigid authoritarian regimes and similar responses from organisations.  As the power shifts occur, we all need to be mindful and realise we can all play a part, an important part and be aware of who we are and how we conduct ourselves in these challenging times. 

I would invite ALL to watch the playback of the briefings and for new and experinced leaders trying to navigate this new landscape.  It has been an honor to learn directly from a senior global leader, Dr Nabarro who has extensive experience in public health emergecies and who also has 4SD for leadership support/consultancy as a space to work with your own situation, determining how you will move forward.   Sarah Phillips provides a limited number of organisational role analysis consultancy through www.prisminsight.co.uk  to leaders navigating through these unprecedented times. Sarah adopts a systems psychodynamic approach but has very limited availability and works internationally including a current client in Afghanistan.  We can use the virtual secure platform doctify, used by the NHS.