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 – February 2015

Michelle Knight, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Macmillan and Hudson Palliative Care, Wisbech

Michelle was nominated by a patient for “the care, love and understanding” she received whilst at the MacMillan and Hudson Centre in Wisbech.

Michelle helped her over some very difficult times as the rare illness she had was very hard to cope with and very scary.  Michelle sat with her on many occasions and she gradually opened up to her enabling her to be taken out of some very dark places where at times she was so afraid. She cleared her head and this slowly helped to open up her heart and believe in people again.  Michelle shone a light on this lady and she would like to “shine a light” on her as she is a very, very special person.

Well done to Michelle!

Other nominations for February include:

Rachel Kremer and Sarah Munroe, Team Leads Community Blood Services, Community Blood Services - Luton

Rachel and Sarah were nominated by Anne Sharpe after Andrew Gwynne MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Thrombosis Group, invited Sarah and Rachel to the Group’s Annual Conference, at the House of Commons. This was in recognition of the contribution they made by providing a case study on DVT services in Luton for the NHS Innovation Showcase: DVT in Primary Care’.

Community Access and Rehabilitation Team, Intermediate Care, Tomlinson Avenue Luton

Linda Sharkey nominated the team as they will be moving to Virgin Care on 31 March 2015, which will be a significant loss to integrated working and management in Luton. They have been the leaders of change management and integration within the unit. The team have led the roll out of cross team supervision, worked across social care and the private sector to build integrated working and never say 'can’t be done'. Despite significant change they are pragmatic and positive and deserve to be recognised as a high performing leadership team.

Pauline Glass, Senior Drugs Worker, Luton Drugs Service Clody House

Pauline was nominated by Linda Sharkey for her work with service users to develop a new service users group locally. GOAL presented to the Luton Board recently outlining their ambition to develop a network of volunteers and service user champion to support local people to reduce the harm from drugs use. She has led the development of this initiative with passion and ensured that based on evidence of good practice from other areas Luton will have good service user support.

Mohammud Nadeem Moiden, ACTT Team Lead, Luton Community Randstad Court

Linda Sharkey commended Nadeem for improving the impact of the ACTT team significantly. Networking with GPs locally he has supported them to increase referrals for admission avoidance; there has been a steady increase month on month since his appointment. He has also led the unit’s response to Sepis, developing workshops and working across teams to ensure that before the end of March 2015 100% of clinical teams have attended Sepsis training. He has proved a capable, committed and considerate leader, his skills are growing day by day, and applications to join his team have also grown. They very much appreciate all of his support.

Michael McMahon & TB Team, TB Team, Luton Community Randstad

Michael was nominated by Linda Sharkey after a letter was received from Dr Pillai Respiratory Consultant L&D.  The letter read: “Since the appointment of Mr McMahon as the lead TB Nurse Specialist, we have been able to provide better care in the community due to his hard work and leadership and also due to our skilful community team. During the last year we were able to prevent any major TB outbreaks in the community and the data shows that in the last couple of years we have been able to reduce the TB incidents by 10% to 15% every year.” 

The team are now merging with the respiratory team to take on the challenge of integrated working and to focus on COPD to reduce admissions, the leadership and skills of Mike and his team have been clear, they are adaptable and focused. We are very proud to be part of their achievements.

Alison Crocker, Urogynae Senior Physiotherapist, MSK Services

Alison was nominated by Sarah Saul and Jane Martin after a patient highlighted the care she had received.  The patient, a nurse in the NHS for 17 years said Ali “was a delightful lady and she is a wonderful practitioner, she has a beautiful manner and explained everything thoroughly in detail.” Even though she is a nurse she was treated like a patient. 

Ali goes the extra mile, is very dedicated, empathetic, flexible in her hours etc. for the needs of her patients. She collaborates with the acute hospital; works well with consultants and other service users, links with GP's on service redesign, is a system one guru and is also furthering her career studying at Bradford with three young children. She typifies a physio who values her career as a profession not just a job and her commitment to MSK/the team and CCS is exemplary.

Diane Read, Assistant Manager Intermediate Care Services, Out of Hours Nursing Service, Out of Hours Nursing Service

Diane was nominated by Aaron Burns, a member of staff for the support shown she has shown him and his wife.

Aaron and his wife had been going through IVF for a number of years and had numerous failed attempts. They had the three courses available to them on the NHS but all where unsuccessful. 

They had some frozen embryos left from their failed cycles which could be used for one more frozen embryo transfer cycle on the NHS. They had two embryos placed back and to their surprise both took. Their twin daughters Chloe and Gracie where born premature 4.11.2014 and had to stay in Addenbrookes NICU for over three weeks, this was a time of very high stress and worry for Aaron and his wife. They are now home and doing very well. 

The ups and downs of IVF and the whole process were made so much easier with the dedication and support that Aaron received from his team manager Diane. Any problems that he had, appointments he needed to make or just when he needed to talk she always did her best to help and listen. Aaron said: “She is a credit to CCS and our team.  CCS is lucky to have such caring and committed member of staff. Thanks Diane “

Louise Armstrong, Physiotherapist, CART - Luton

Mandy Renton nominated Louise after the Trust Board met Louise as she accompanied a client with whom she had worked and was presenting the patient story. The client and her husband reported how Louise in particular made an impact on her recovery pathway, which was above and beyond, the requirements of her role. Specifically how Louise used not only the full range of skills acquired and supported through her Trust role, but also those acquired through her role in sports physiotherapy. Louise acted proactively to deliver the right care for the person, respecting her views, listening to and responding to her needs, and supporting the whole family. She navigated through the system (via primary care, several acute Trusts and community care) for the patient which had been a nightmare experienced by the patient before she began working with Louise. Without her, the patient feels that she would be confined to a wheelchair.

Sam Carr and Jenny Pearson, Assistant Director, Service Redesign and Assistant Business Manager, the Meadows, St Ives

Sam and Jenny were commended by Sue Johnson for working tirelessly on the Norfolk bid to ensure all statements were pulled together, formatted and submitted in time to give CCS NHS Trust the best chance possible to win this bid. This was the first bid Sue had been involved in, and she had no idea of the extent of work involved to gather all information, ensure colleagues submit in time and then try and make sense of what colleagues are submitting. Well done all but especially Sam and Jenny.

Trina Kubik, Receptionist/Administrator, Physiotherapy Outpatients, Hinchingbrooke Hospital

Trina was nominated by Jane Martin after she volunteered her services during the period between Christmas and New Year, whilst she was on annual leave. The team became very busy with many referrals coming in from the GPs and this became very difficult to manage with skeleton staff. Trina cancelled her leave to help her team.

Well done to everyone who was nominated this month!