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.

The winners for August are:

Lisa Wright and the Infant Feeding Team - Cambridgeshire

Lisa Wright and the team were nominated by Fleur Seekins for developing and supporting and successfully achieving the baby friendly accreditation stage 2. The team is multi-talented consisting of auditors, trainers, infant feeding advisors and project support. During the past year the team has been able to evidence a huge increase in staff knowledge and confidence. They have achieved this through bespoke individual staff sessions and most importantly with their culture of kindness approach. Fundamentally it is families that benefit from this, as new parents are supported to give their babies love, care and nourishment they need to get the best start in life.

The team work hard to ensure that the Cambridgeshire’s breastfeeding statistics remain above national average. This is achieved through raising awareness that breastfeeding matters, effective support to mothers and their families and restricting promotion of formula milks and foods. The healthy child programme is incredibly proud of the team and the whole workforce for their achievement in gaining stage 2 baby friendly accreditation.

Congratulations to Lisa and the team!

Other nominees were:

Sharon Amos, Community Staff Nurse, Bevan Cluster, Luton
Sharon was nominated by Sarah Bunn for a great idea to support enhanced communication with secondary care. The idea came from thinking how they can ensure that staff at the hospital are quickly aware that the individual is known to their services, especially in relation to pressure ulcer management. Her idea was a pink wrist band – this simple idea which fits perfectly with At Home First ‘think pink campaign’ - reflects a really innovative approach to a problem which can cause delays in communication in relation to patient care and often increased workload for staff.

Currently patients are being taken into Hospital via A&E and staff are unaware that they may be under the care of the Integrated Community Nursing Team. They could be known to CCS services for any number of reasons including wound care, pressure ulcer care, medication administration, insulin administration. The patient may then be admitted and there may be a delay in the transfer of care proforma being issued and a full handover being given. The wristbands make it clear to the staff in A&E that the patient is being treated by the Integrated Community Nursing Team and request that they contact the number on the wristband for a full verbal handover. Sharon proactively considered how to purchase bands which are safe for patients to wear and set about an engagement exercise with staff and patients. This gave positive results which she has articulately shared with senior members of staff. The main benefit of these wristbands is their simplicity and very low cost. 

Andy Boocock, Information Analyst, The Poynt, Luton
Andy was nominated by Ian Moyes after Augustina Williams discussed the work Andy had undertaken with the community paediatrics team in Luton. He worked alongside clinicians and staff to develop and implement comprehensive performance reporting. Augustina said: “Andy has had a major impact on the team. Nothing was too much for him and he's given us exactly what we need internally to manage the service. He's invigorated the team with his enthusiasm and attention to detail, and has worked really hard to support the urgent work around paediatric audiology waiting times.”

Jackie Walsh, Specialist Nurse, iCaSH, Bury St Edmunds
Jackie was nominated by Sarah Edwards for her contribution to patient care and efficient use of resources.  In addition to day to day duties, Jackie has been proactive in managing supplies of hepatitis B vaccine, they had insufficient vaccine for all the patients who had booked appointments, by reviewing all bookings in advance, seeking help in prioritising cases and keeping supplies under review. This has enabled them to cancel patients' appointments in a timely fashion, and avoid wasted journeys when supplies are not available. In addition she has identified increases in some other pharmacy costs, which are now being reviewed and could result in significant cost savings.

Congratulations to everyone who was nominated this month.