Hundreds of extra staff recruited during pandemic thanks to Nurse Bank
Tracy Bullock presented the nurse bank team with their Chief Executive's Award recently
UHNM’s nurse bank team have been recognised for their contribution by the hospital’s chief executive Tracy Bullock. During the course of the pandemic the team set up an emergency bank, recruiting more than 400 staff to join the fight against Covid-19. This included providing essential support to the hospital’s critical care department and hiring more than 50 vaccinators to help with the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The team have now been given the Chief Executive’s Award in recognition of their achievements.
Barbara Walsh, nurse bank matron, said: “We set the nurse bank up in 2000 and have since continued to develop the service, with seven-day cover now available to support wards. We want people to build skills and confidence within their profession so we also help bank staff with personal development and support registered nurses with their revalidation and training.
“We’re fortunate to have some excellent staff here and we want to keep them in the UHNM family wherever possible. It’s only natural that sometimes people may feel like they need a change, but we always really encourage them to consider transferring to the bank rather than moving on altogether. As a team we do our best to place people in different areas, if this is what they want.
“It’s really important to us that staff feel safe and valued, so we have an open-door policy for all bank staff should they wish to come and talk to one of us. There have been and still continue to be some very difficult situations during the course of the pandemic and many sensitive conversations have had to take place. We believe we have provided people with support and encouragement and wherever appropriate we have ensured staff receive referrals to the trust’s wellbeing service.
“When I heard the team was getting the chief executive’s award I was quite speechless. I am so very proud of the work that we do. We have enhanced the service we provide over the years and our staff really do go above and beyond the call of duty.”
Tracy Bullock, chief executive, said: “The value of the nurse bank team’s work can’t be underestimated. They quietly beaver away in the background but the service they provide is absolutely essential and without them we would not be able to function as well as we do. My thanks go to the team for their continued dedication.”
The nurse bank team organise for registered general nurses, midwives, paediatric nurses and nursing assistants to join the UHNM ranks. They also work with medical students and specialist staff such as operating department practitioners.