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 winner for August 2018 is:

Janet Heywood, Health visitor/Practice Teacher, 0-19 Team, Bedfordshire

Janet was nominated by Emma Fleming as the team wanted to express their gratitude for all the hard work and commitment she has given whilst working as a health visitor for over 30 years. Janet qualified as a nurse in 1976 and became a health visitor soon after that. She has been a practice teacher for many years and the students she has taught have valued the exceptional advice, support and time she has given them. Janet thrives on sharing her wealth of knowledge and she is proud to see new health visitor’s graduate to go on to have the amazing career that she has had as a health visitor. The families that Janet has come into contact with over the years have really appreciated the care and compassion shown by Janet.  She always shows empathy to families who struggle with everyday life. Emma said: “We feel very lucky to have worked with Janet and would like to wish her well on the many cruises and holidays she is planning for her retirement. She inspires all of us and we all hope we are as fit and as enthusiastic as she is at 60 (she doesn’t look it).”

Huge congratulations to Janet!

Other nominations this month included:

Joanna Kerley, Nurse, Holly Ward, Hinchingbrooke Hospital 
Joanna was nominated by Stephanie Elderton for doing an incredible job looking after her baby twins when they were admitted onto Holly ward in January. She was extremely professional the whole time and stayed very calm even when they came in and one twin was extremely poorly. Joanna was very clear when explaining everything and made sure they were comfortable and made sure they had rooms next door so they could easily move between both twins. When one twin was transferred to another hospital she made sure the dad and the other twin had everything they needed and helped as much as she could. She also made the transfer process to the other hospital as stress free as possible by explaining everything and trying to keep them as calm as she could. Stephanie said: “She has saved both my little ones lives and I'm so grateful and forever in debt to her and all those on Holly who helped my twins. I can’t think of anyone more worthy of this award than Jo and she went above and beyond with not only us but other patients as well.”

Ruth McLaren, Clinical Systems Analyst, System One Team
Ruth was nominated by Jacqui Taylor and Tessa Shaw.  Jacqui said: “We have been struggling in our SystmOne unit for some time to find an efficient system by which to make internal referrals to our Orthotics, Serial Casting and Lycra services for our Children and Young People with complex disabilities to allow easy communication, efficient use of therapists time, keeping all of the information together so it easy to retrieve and collecting data.

"Ruth agreed to meet with us extremely promptly and listened attentively to what our therapists needs were and the systems which needed to be in place, asking the right questions with her in-depth understanding of the clinical system and matching what the system could be asked to do with the needs clinically. She went away and built a template with 48 hours for trial, responding immediately to initial feedback and glitches. The feedback from the physiotherapy team on what Ruth considers to be a little bit of work is overwhelming and it has made an enormous difference to our practice and efficiency/effectiveness. She is always willing, never complains despite the many demands on her time across the Trust and she truly listens to the needs of clinicians and makes the system work for them rather than making us fit the system. She is also very humble and an absolute joy to work with!” 

Tessa added: “Ruth developed a template for us to use in our Orthotics clinics, which is brilliant and saving us so much time. She has been really efficient and nothing is ever too much of a problem. She has good ideas as to how we can use SystmOne to suit our needs.” Another comment said: “The main thing I have been impressed with is the 'can do' attitude, nothing was a problem or too difficult and even minor changes are made really quickly.”

Claire Downing, Children and Young People's Physiotherapist, Cambridgeshire
Claire was nominated by Jacqui Taylor after helping a distressed mum in the Child Development Centre Car park at Addenbrooke's Hospital. The mum had put her 2 children, one 2 years and a baby into the car ready to leave, shut the door to put her pushchair in the boot at which point the 2 year old had pushed the lock button on the car and locked himself and his baby sibling inside the car with mum on the outside.

Despite lots of cajoling from mum and Claire, the 2 year old did not understand what he needed to do to unlock the car and became increasingly upset as did his mother. After some time, the 2 year old accidentally nudged window handle enough to be opened a crack. Claire turned to one of her physio equipment staples, the tape measure, made a lasso and lowered it into the car through the crack over the winder and managed to wind the window down just enough to get her hand in and open the car - much to the relief of the mother and children.

Jacqui said: “This was not Claire's patient; she was on her way home with plans for the evening but did not hesitate to stop and spend the next half hour supporting this family to the end result. This is a testament to the nature of Claire and the kindness she shows the families she works with, her colleagues (she makes sure everyone gets a team birthday card and tea/cake) and basically anyone she comes into contact with. Nothing is ever too much trouble!”

Huge congratulations to everyone who was nominated this month!