This award is an opportunity for patients, families, visitors and Trust colleagues to say ‘thank you – you made a difference’ to a member of staff or a team for anything (however small!) that helped make their experience of our services better.

Shine a Light Award Winner – November  2014

Bernie Green, District Nursing Sister, Luton

Bernie was nominated for going the extra mile to support three community teams during a time of really difficult change and staff shortages. She's recognised the strength of working together across three localities to integrate the teams to support one another and use the skills in the team effectively and efficiently. She’s done this really skilfully using her quiet, considered and compassionate communications skills to support the teams to manage their caseloads.

Teams are feeling well supported despite the pressure and the subsequent effect of reducing clinical risks and achieving positive outcomes for patients. Her leadership has shone through; she deserves to be recognised for her passion for nursing and kindness to staff.

Well done to Bernie!

Other nominations for November include:

Patricia Loughrey, DVT sister, Luton Treatment Centre

Patricia has worked really hard at integrating with the team and learning her new role. She is excellent with the patients and she has received lots of positive feedback. She is professional, patient and always takes the time to go the extra mile with the patient and colleagues.

Sarah Stephens, Receptionist, Corporate - The Meadows

Sarah was commended for making a real difference on reception.  Sarah is very helpful and courteous to all visitors, not only in person but also on the phone. Sarah is always pleased to help everybody and regularly goes beyond the realms of her job to ensure smooth running of the reception area, and maintains all the equipment. She is an excellent 1st point of contact for the Trust, and ensures that all enquiries are dealt with in a friendly and effective manner.

Sarah ensures that any faults within the building are reported quickly and follows this through to completion of the works and keeps all staff updated on the progress of the works. Sarah is a whizz at fixing the photocopier and ensures that there is a ready supply of papers and stationary. Sarah is happy to take on new duties and challenges, and not only embraces this work, but also completes all tasks within timescales and does a good job at everything she does.

Sarah is a complete asset to the Trust and has improved the reception service beyond recognition. Sarah is one of "Our Stars."

Chris Goodrum, HCA, Trafford Ward, North Cambs Hospital

Chris is a HCA on Trafford ward and she was nominated for working tirelessly on every shift to ensure the patient’s needs are met.  She always has a smile for her patients and is an exceptional example of how our staff deliver the Trusts behaviours and values. She comes in early and will not go home until she has taken care of everything.

Chris is the ward’s dignity champion and always ensures the dignity notice board is up to date. She works tirelessly to ensure all staff work towards the 6 C's and isn’t afraid to tackle them if she see's something they can improve on. Overall she works as part of the ward team, always ready to go over and above to ensure the quality of care she delivers is of a high standard.

Kathleen Murphy, Administration Manager & Team, Luton

Kathy was commended for the positive changes she has made in her leadership.  She would be the first to say that there were times over the last year that she's found her role very challenging. The introduction of integrated admin teams, the single point of access, major reconfigurations in the buildings and trying to keep people on board and clear about their roles and responsibilities isn’t easy.

This year though using coaching to support her Kathy has shown the Senior Management team a really positive change in her leadership and we'd like to nominate her for being brave enough to recognise personal growth and change was needed and then having the courage to stop looking at the past and move forwards.

We are all really proud of what she has achieved personally and professionally we are very grateful for the service improvements we're seeing. The whole admin team though also deserve this award as they have worked with Kathy and are a fantastic asset to the Trust.

Sue Guess and Sue Holes, Pharmacy Technicians & Pharmacy Lead, Luton

Both ladies were nominated for being the hidden gems of community services. Day by day they support complex care to continue in the community with massive patient and system benefits by reducing risks of medication errors, over medication, harmful storage of medicines and frail elderly people not understanding the medicines they take. They support nursing/residential homes, see patients discharged from hospital as quickly as possible and support the teams with good grace and humour.

We can’t thank them enough for their commitment and passion for safety, mitigation of risks and supporting patients to remain safely at home. Our local pharmacy lead is fantastic, keeping us all well briefed, up to date and ensuring the safety of local prescribers.

Alison Formoy, Health Visitor Administrator, Wisbech Team

Alison was nominated after devising a spreadsheet for her team to collate information and ensure targets are met for the Wisbech Health Visiting Team.

This excel spreadsheet follows a mum from her first Antenatal check through to the birth of her baby and up to the six to eight week check. This will ensure all data is up to date at a glance (including actions that need to be taken) and calculates dates to ensure correct data is added. The invention of this important piece of work is also saving valuable time for staff and ensuring targets are not missed.

The admin team for South Fenland has been so impressed with Alison’s idea we have copied and adapted for our own use (with Alison’s consent). Several team Managers have congratulated Alison on her hard and innovative work including Ely Team Manager Julie Bunn and South Fenland Team Manager Mike Higgins and it goes without saying her own Manager (Kim Chenery) is extremely impressed.

The potential is to adopt service wide in relation to the development of the Antenatal pathway.