Catherine Krasopoulos is lead nurse for the Cardiovascular Medicine Division in the University of Oxford’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine. She took part in the Women in Leadership training course organised by the NIHR Oxford BRC’s Cardiovascular Theme.
Catherine is based in the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR). It was there that she started working for the University, overseeing a team of nursing staff in 2017. She is now the lead nurse for the whole Cardiovascular Medicine Division, managing 10 nurses, and clinical research practitioners and providing support and mentorship for four senior nurses and a midwife across all of its facilities.
Before coming to Oxford, Catherine was a heart failure specialist nurse and echocardiographer, eventually combining the two roles while working for the NHS in London. After a career break and the move to Oxford, she resumed her career as an echocardiographer, but then moved back into nursing to take up the post in OCMR.
“When I first started in OCMR, there two nurses. Since then, our team has grown – and that has been accompanied by an increase in the number of studies that we take on. Because the team has grown, it’s now more of a management role,” she explains.
The rapid growth of the team was one of the motivating factors for Catherine deciding to do the Women in Leadership course, run by Milly Sinclair and provided by the Oxford BRC’s Cardiovascular Theme – the first such course provided by the BRC specifically aimed at women.
“I wanted to equip myself with the skills and knowledge, but mainly to become a bit more effective in my leadership role,” Catherine says. “I had a vision, but I needed to have a bit more of a strategic way of thinking. This was the first time I’d done a leadership course, and I thought it was a good point in my career to do it.”
She says that she had no preconceptions of what to expect but was surprised at the unique approach adopted on the course: “The first stage focused very much on self-reflection, about your career, where you were when you started until where you are now, developing awareness of your own leadership style, your own personal values. It was an interesting experience.”
Catherine said that she initially just wanted to do a leadership course, rather than one aimed specifically at women.
“But having now done it, I actually think it was a really good idea to have it exclusively for women, and that’s partly because of the way the course is structured – it pushes you outside your comfort zone and your day-to-day professional boundaries, but in a very supportive non-threatening way.
“You had to be self-critical, and other people were critiquing you; it was an environment of trust and that allowed it to be really productive. We were able to talk about issues that women face in their roles in this competitive academic environment.”
She continues: “This training certainly gives you an awareness of your own leadership strengths, but also the motivation and confidence to achieve your own goals. It made me feel, ‘yes, I am in this role, and I can take this forward. I have a right to be here and do this’.”
The initial stages of the course concern self-reflection, but later modules look at how you interact with others and the culture of the team.
A key element of the training is triads of people on the course who can consult and support each other about implementing their objectives.
Catherine also appreciated the opportunity to network with people whom she would not otherwise have known. “It was reassuring to know that others face similar challenges no matter who they are and what role they have, and that setbacks are quite normal.”
An added benefit is that she feels that the course has given her the confidence to raise the profile of her team: “It’s easy to just see what’s right in front of you and not worry about the rest. I think the course helps to broaden your perspective and think a bit more widely about how you interact.
“We are a clinical team in a competitive academic environment and it’s easy to be hidden. We are really important to the way that the research is undertaken and to making it successful. So, one of my key goals is to champion the team, raise its visibility and reach out to investigators who perhaps didn’t know that we existed.”
A beneficial effect of Catherine doing the course has been that members of her team have also seen the value of doing this kind of training: “I’ve had quite a lot of interest from people in the team to do a leadership course. I absolutely support the progression of every individual of my team.”