Nominations

The MySENSE Assistive Technology Project aims to reduce hospital admissions for people in the care of care the High Intensity Team.

MySense is a set of sensors placed in each of the patients’ homes to monitor their movements and routines which is recorded and sent to a dashboard monitored by the High Intensity Users Team to look for patterns, changes and areas of concern which could result in an admission to hospital which could have been avoided.  As part of the MySense package all patients are offered the opportunity to view their data from the dashboard within an app on their mobile device which enables the patient and family to feel reassured that they can remotely monitor themselves.

This successful co-production is encouraging patients/ families to take responsibility and management of their own health and well-being, creating a confidence and much better ability for self-management. This pilot demonstrates UHNM’s commitment to improving and innovating using new technology available, working collaboratively with system partners enhancing the quality of care and outcomes for the most challenged/vulnerable patients. The MySENSE Team are describes as exceptional individuals who delivered exceptional support during exceptional times while remaining committed to truly making a difference.

The Urology stone team Mr Herman Fernando and Mr Vinodh Murali have worked hard to streamline the Percutaneous nephrolithotomy pathway. In 2019 the Urology department had a large number of patients on the stone pathway requiring a PCNL so the team embarked on changing the model so that the Urology Surgeon could undertake the whole procedure independently.

The PCNL service in now led independently by Mr Fernando and Mr Murali, which has led to a reduced waiting list.  The team have recently increased to 3 patients per theatre list, and are the only Urology team in the County who have achieved this.

They are a leading service and have significantly improved the patient’s pathway.   Since this has been implemented the wait times for patient on the stone pathway has reduced by half to an average weeks wait of 22 weeks compared to previous waits of >40 weeks.  This has been achieved through the hard work and dedication of the team and their commitment to improvement patient care.

Utilising the A3 methodology, aligned to the strategic priority domain “People”, the critical care units wellbeing team developed an A3 on Psychological Safety and established a working group - the Critical care unit Psychological Safety team.

The project started in 2021 with a vision that the entire Critical Care workforce is inclusive and individuals have a feeling of being valued, and mutually respected within the team. They have Psychological Safety where individuals are empowered to speak up with ideas, questions, concerns or discuss and learn from mistakes.

They developed countermeasures following review of literature, adapting a ‘Check in/Huddle/Check out’ process with supporting Process Standard Works. This enables and encourages the culture of speaking up, sharing, focusing on the staff members needs as well at the patient’s.  Their commitment to changing the culture to be inclusive, ensuring that everyone feels supported, innovative, feels able to speak up, question and encourage learning and development is now becoming a reality. The team are committed to improving the ccu unit and staff experience which impacts patient experience.

The Early Pregnancy Unit is a very small team in a Nurse led department, who care for ladies 6- 16 week pregnant having complications in the early stages of pregnancy. The support provided to our patients requires the team to go above and beyond daily from a cup of tea to holding a hand when needed. The team have worked hard over the last few years fundraising with various raffles , cake sales & craft stalls to raise money to provide patients with a memory bag for each pregnancy loss these include forget me knot seeds, a candle , charms and a crochet heart/ Butterfly.

The early pregnancy team are incredibly proud of they deliver the trust values, Being kind , compassionate, safely delivering care whilst improving along the way.

During the 12 months the team on ward 128 have gone above and beyond.

They supported a refugee who had recently given birth was admitted to the ward for treatment. The team organised security and safety  protocols to allow the new mum and baby to stay together, at a time where the lady was so frightened and vulnerable. Baby products were purchased by the team from nappies to the crib as she had little funds and no external support.

Secondly the team discovered that a lady who arrived on the ward late one night was having her 100th Birthday celebrations the next day. The ward clubbed together, arranged for a Birthday card, banners, balloons and a birthday cake to ensure one of their patients did not miss out on an important landmark birthday because they were in hospital. In addition, a gentleman who was an end of life patient wished to get married so colleagues pulled out all the stops to ensure the patient’s wishes and dreams became a reality.

This team always go above and beyond when it comes to compassion and kindness, they value their patients and service users like they would their own family.

In their nomination, the emergency department housekeepers are recognised for being the unsung heroes of the department.

The Emergency Department is a hive of continuous activity that has a constant stream of highs and lows. Behind this is a team that are always present whenever they are needed. If the team are having a bad day and struggling under the burden of delays and sick patients, the housekeepers ensure the department are supported.

In the hot weather, the team actively circulated around the entire department to ensure every member of staff from receptionist to consultant got a bottle of water and during an influx of patients from a community event the housekeepers managed to convert our seminar room to an impromptu relative’s room for nearly 30 people. They ensured everyone had a drink and a snack and made sure that everyone who was working in resus continued to have access to cold drinks whilst working.

Every day the emergency department manages patients who die or treat those who are entering the last hours of life. Whilst the clinicians are treating the patients, the housekeeper team provide compassion that is immeasurable care to the relatives.

From a very challenging position a little over 12 months ago, whereby the recruitment team were facing lots of criticism and challenges, to now where the team have made many improvements in how they process recruitment, turnaround times and engage with applicants and hiring managers.

Their nomination highlights some of the great work that they have been doing, from social media campaigns to attending Careers Weeks for all local school and colleges,  sharing role profiles and the development opportunities with quiz’s and interactivity info.

The team have also implemented a new career pathway that mirrors the Newly Qualified Nurses but for Nursing Assistants who have completed their Level 2 or 3 in Health and social Care, this will start next Jan 2024 with a number of sixth forms and colleges already signed up. 

The PKB team have worked collaboratively to launch and enhance the patient portal. Through their collective efforts, they successfully integrated the PKB platform into UHNM's systems, ensuring access to Trust appointments and letters for patients.

Leadership skills and excellent team working are key strengths of the PKB Project Team. They have showcased effective leadership by creating a strong vision. Innovation and creativity have been instrumental in the team's exceptional performance levels and service delivery.

The impact of the PKB Project Team's work is evident through the substantial number of patients registered on the platform, with over 115,000 individuals benefiting from the access to their clinical records and communication solutions. By providing a secure and user-friendly platform, the team has contributed to improved patient experiences and outcomes.

The team's commitment to exceptional service delivery is evident in their accomplishments. The PKB Project Team's leadership, teamwork, innovation, and dedication have not only delivered exceptional performance but also positively impacted the organisation as a whole.

The emergency department reception team were nominated for their training sessions and work with EMIS, technology to drive improvements and enable better patient outcomes.

In March as training and understanding grew of this system the Reception team printed 347 letters, again diverting just over half of these patients. For those patients this makes a huge difference in not having to wait in two assessment areas having already been seen in the health economy system. It also means that others waiting in the department get seen quicker as it decongests the department of patients that are more appropriate for specialist review.

 The hope is that these numbers will continue to increase as competency in using the system increases. But it is testament to great cross health economy team working the Federation linking with UHNM to enable better health care outcomes for our patients. And a big achievement from our Reception team who have done an amazing job of learning the new system using it to improve the patient journey in an already time pressured environment.

Dr Vicki Burnham’s nomination describes her as quite simply an inspiration.

In her work as the lead for the Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration programme within the Emergency Department she has developed a fantastic opportunity for doctors from across the world for doctors who are not trainees to get equivalent opportunities to gather the evidence and training to become Emergency Medicine Consultants.

Over the past 5 years this programme has evolved from a fledgling concept to a fully blown training pathway with over 20 doctors on it. What she has developed using her enthusiasm, passion and leadership is now an oversubscribed opportunity for all to learn, develop and become Emergency Medicine Consultants.

Away from the holistic side, Vicki has promoted the idea that those who come to UHNM to learn Emergency Medicine should be treated in the same way as trainees. This sense of equality and fairness and that everyone should be provided with the same provision and opportunity deserves huge credit. She has evolved the framework for the education of these doctors to mirror the support given to trainees, ensuring we provide dedication education time, support for the comparable courses and working with multiple other departments across the organisation to ensure all their learning needs can be met. She has created a sense of purpose and commitment amongst those she trains and is responsible for and this has manifested in a high rate of exam passes and of those who have stayed with us for their final evaluation, a good final success rate.

This overall success and evolution of this work over the past 5 years has been led with absolute dedication and enthusiasm that is felt by anyone who discusses the work with Dr Burnham. She is an incredible person who has created a supportive, inclusive environment for anyone in the world to come and train to be an Emergency Medicine Consultant at UHNM.

Ever since Emily joined the Trust the Recruitment Team has gone from strength to strength.

Emily bought with her a real drive and passion for our candidates and our hiring managers alike and she has really turned the service around. Within a few months of being in post Emily undertook a critical task of redesigning the recruitment pathway, which is complex and multi-faceted.  Working with the Transformation Team, she led her team through a continuous improvement programme, taking a step back on the processes.

All of this work resulted in the team massively turning around their performance, but also smashing through not only to meet the time to hire target of 71 days but bringing this down to an impressive 42 days.  

Emily embodies the qualities of an exceptional leader, demonstrating a relentless commitment to high quality customer focused services, focused not on her personal success but that of the whole team.  She has developed members of her team to maximise on their potential, empowering them and bringing out their unique talents. Emily has shown consistently her dedication to delivering high quality services.  She has worked many additional hours in order to bring our recruitment backlog down, never complaining, but knowing that the goal was well worth the pursuit.

Katie has worked tirelessly to improve all of teams in North Midlands and Cheshire Pathology Service.

Katie has now become the Practice educator for NMCPS and it is here that I believe she had flourished and touched so many others lives. In this role Katie provides mentorship to a range of people from university students who aspire to be the future of the biomedical science profession, school students who are explore where they would like to end up building a career to our own staff who would like to grow and contribute to the results we get for our patients.

Katie is an excellent leader in this field and she sparks the fire for the desire to learn and grow. Her friendly approachable personality means that people who have always secretly wanted to progress but felt like they weren't capable could come and have a friendly chat and they leave full of confidence and taking those exciting next steps in their career development. Katie has secured funding to grow our staff in the division which goes a long way in helping those that may not have had the opportunity to grow otherwise, it opens up a world of opportunities to everybody.

She is the secret cheerleader standing behind each and every one of us propelling us to excel and be the best version of ourselves so that we can in turn do the best we possibly can for our patients.

Katy Stern is an amazingly compassionate specialist nurse who deals with some of the most difficult clinical conditions.  She provides support to families where a family member has suffered an unexplained sudden cardiac death.  She manages patients at risk of inheriting a genetic complication and the degree of skill, compassion and empathy needed for this role is immense.  Katy brings this to work every day and always has time to spend with patients and family.

Katy was approached by Annabelle's challenge charity and is now an ambassador for vascular Ehlers-Danlos and we want her to become involved in the National Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions.  Her enthusiasm and drive to improve both the service and her knowledge knows no bounds.  She attends conferences in her own time and is always reading and improving.  She continually improves service for our patients and keeps us all working together on new things every week. Katy’s nomination mentions she sparkles at work and her office is well known as the place to go for support and friendship during a tough day – known as the sunshine office.

In his nomination Dr Elkanzi is described as a shining light of the Emergency Department.

He is incredibly close to be a successful graduate of the in house education programme that supports doctors onto the specialist register (CESR) and then become consultants.

Kanzi moved to the UK and joined UHNM in October 2017 and it was his first job in the NHS and he has faced any challenges with greater humour and humility. Over the course of the last 5 years he has gained experience in paediatrics, anaesthetics and intensive care medicine, allowing him to gain enough evidence to submit his application to join the specialist register.

In December of 2022, it was an incredibly proud moment for the entire department when Kanzi was offered a locum consultant post and able to get one step closer to his dream. Behind this great clinician is a fantastic human. He carries himself with great dignity but maintains a balance of humility. He is a living embodiment of the trust values without needing to learn them or change, because of who he is. Kanzi is fantastic at treating all with compassion and cares about all patients and staff in equal measures, always smiling and offering a listening ear should you need it.

Advanced nurse practitioner Nina started her career in ENT at County Hospital Theatres, and through her enthusiasm, knowledge, professionalism and love of teaching progressed to specialist lead.

Working alongside Head and Neck Consultant Surgeons and Registrars, Nina has made significant improvements to the way our ENT service is delivered, including increasing the number of potential cancer patients receiving a timely diagnosis due to the implementation of her Nasopharyngeal Endoscopy clinics. One aspect of this includes outreach work in the community, where she has performed almost 100 Naso-endoscopy procedures.

From a management perspective, Nina is approachable, fair and supportive to junior colleagues, she regularly checks on staff members welfare and offers support when its needed, regardless of her own personal circumstances. Nina embodies our Trust Values, she consistently demonstrates our 'Together, Compassion, Safe and Improving ' ethos. She is an asset to the Trust and deserves recognition for her hard work and dedication, not only to the ENT department, UHNM, her colleagues and most importantly our patients.

Tracey joined the Trust in January to start her apprenticeship in Business Administration. Tracey has not only excelled in her studies for her NVQ Tracey has come into the team and has made so many improvements to the way in which we work.  Tracey has single handily streamlined the manner in which annual leave is managed using her own initiative. Tracey has improved so many areas of the health and safety team's processes and so I nominate for the work achieved here.

Everyday Tracey is looking to improve systems we work in to support and help the team to enable us more time to spend assisting colleagues. Tracey considers each aspect of the process to ensure that improvements are required, viable and enhance the process rather than causing additional pressures to the team.  Tracey has grown as a person in her apprenticeship, is confident is capable and exceptionally competent.  Tracey is developing her knowledge and skill base even further as she is learning skills in health and safety and is looking to move into completing her NEBOSH to become a Health and Safety Advisor.

Tanith is relatively new in post as Lead maternity support worker for retention and recruitment, but she has already made a tangible difference to the workforce. She has personally arranged inductions, welcomed new starters and worked clinically with them to ensure they feel well supported. 

Tanith’s new approach not only welcomes new starters, but reassures valued staff that their staffing concerns are being taken seriously.

Tanith has written core competencies for MSW’s on delivery suit which ensure MSW’s are fully trained and equipped with the skills they need provide to provide kind, compassionate and safe care. Tanith is working on competencies in all other areas to ensure this initiative can be benefited from across maternity services. Her desire and drive to support all maternity staff is palpable; she has worked with her peers across the country and taken the lead on setting up a national MSW retention leads network to facilitate knowledge sharing.

Wendy has taken to her Health care apprentice role brilliantly. In her nomination she is described as proactive, caring, compassionate and communicates with patients and staff effectively. She has received a personal thank you card posted into Outpatients from a grateful patient for her care and compassion.

With the help of her mum Ceilia, Maisie the therapy dog always a brings a smile to patients and brightens their day.

Celia will often go out of her way to ensure that patients get to experience a visit from Maisie. Recently Celia arranged a ward visit with Maisie to visit a patient at short notice, ensuring the patient’s dying wish was granted.

Volunteer Sophie is a major asset to the outpatients department at county hospital.

She meets and greets patients, helps book people in, and directs them to the right area. She has an amazing rapport with our patients.

Sophie does a number of jobs across the department, such as photocopying, cleaning, restocking the gastro and ENT trolleys and will get rooms ready for clinics.

She has also worked on developing the changing places toilet, creating a more accessible environment. Sophie has 3 of the UHNM values badges and well deserved all of them.

Betty has been volunteering for over 17 years and always brings in baked goods for patients and staff at expense to herself and asks for nothing in return.

Team Ward 113 have faced many challenges over the last three years and despite this they have maintained a positive attitude with a "can do "approach to their daily work.  

The ward have achieved 100% for Personal Development Reviews for the first time ever, the positive impact of this being that each staff member had the opportunity to have 1:1 time with a member of the Senior nursing team on the ward to discuss how they are feeling in their role and to set goals for the future, making staff feel valued and appreciated.

 All staff are encouraged to voice their opinions on ways in which the ward can be improved and team working is actively promoted. The ward holds regular events to encourage Togetherness, such as a Multi-cultural lunch on the ward.

In their nomination they are described as dedicated and committed to patient care and to each other every day, they are resilient, flexible and dedicated to our patients.

The Urology Nursing workforce, which consists of clinical nurse specialists, Urology nurse practitioners, Health cares and an administration team, are a team that continue to work collaboratively to make improvements to the service they provide.

They have recently implemented a nurse led triage to test for patients on a benign 18 week pathway.  This was implemented in April 2023 as a pilot and the team have embraced this and continued this on, patients are called within week of their referral and directed to test, or into a nurse led or consultant clinic. 

The team offer excellent training opportunities and have empowered their workforce to ensure career progression can be achieved whist always working within safe, improving, together and compassion. 

The team are proactive in their approach in particular in the management of patients who are on a cancer pathway, they support to ensure patients are seen and next steps achieved in a timely manner, they have embraced the 28 day faster diagnosis prostate pathway and have recently improved the way in which they communicate with patients through text messaging to ensure they are kept aware of next steps in a timely fashion.

In their nomination, the Plain Film imaging team was referred to as the bread and butter of all imaging modalities.

Throughout the pandemic, the plain film imaging team pulled together to support the increased demands of the imaging service. The team often had their rota changed on a weekly basis to support the increase in admissions to the hospital and worked around the clock to ensure delays didn’t occur.

The team also offered to support additional lists for theatres 24/7 and supported additional portable imaging for those patients that were too ill to transfer to department.

Not only did the team work exceptionally throughout the pandemic, over the last year the plain film team have had to change the way they have worked to support an additional CT scanner in the emergency department. The team have worked tirelessly to support this reduction in capacity, in order to continue with exceptional patient focused care.

Lauren joined UHNM as a graduate in 2019 as Communications Assistant and has proved herself as very capable. She performs her job at an exemplary level and has an extraordinary commitment to the UHNM communications team as well as to the patients we serve.

Lauren takes it upon herself to provide exceptional support and service to UHNM staff and services. She discerns quickly their individual needs and efficiently provides key information, recommendations, or direction about the best communications channels and help.

Lauren is a wonderfully talented graphic designer and is always looking at ways to expand her digital knowledge which she is now using this to create new online campaigns.  This includes video; the creation of infographics; development of animations as well as on-line digital advertising to support recruitment to ensure key messages can be easily understood.

Lauren is well liked and respected by all her immediate colleagues in the communications team but is highly regarded by staff across the Trust, which is demonstrated by the fact that in her short career at UHNM she has picked up multiple Trust values badges and is the first recipient of the communications team to be presented with a Heart Badge.

Lauren is helpful, caring, resourceful and happy to offer her service no matter the task. Her quick wit, attention to detail, and loyalty to the Trust have endeared her to her colleagues and her skills, knowledge, willingness to help others, and dedication to the NHS demonstrates that she should have a long and successful career in NHS communications and make her an excellent nominee for Rising Star.

Jordan has been working for Clinical Technology for just over 2 years as a developmental Medical engineer. During this relatively short time he has shown a high level of commitment and a positive attitude. Although he is still training he has become a valuable and respected member of his engineering teams, and can be relied upon to consistently produce a high level of work.

Jordan is working towards complete his HNC course in Electrical Engineering, and has recently been awarded student of the year at North Staffordshire College Group. He is always willing to help clinical colleagues, even if the issue is not necessarily his responsibility, with the ultimate aim of working in collaboration and building a better rapport to promote a better team environment. He sees how effective teamwork makes a difference, notices when people need extra support and can be relied upon at all times.

Jordan has to work in both clinical and domestic environments and always respects our home patients, even when these locations can be a challenging place to work. He shows compassion towards patients and carers when installing new equipment, repairing, servicing and especially when this activity is related to the removal of equipment following bereavement.

He has quickly become very knowledgeable on equipment and has started to produce work instructions for the calibration of specific test equipment. Jordan has really embraced the improving side of the Trust values and is always enthusiastic to learn new skills. He actively seeks new opportunities for further learning from his peers, he is not afraid to make suggestions with the aim of making improvements. This all leads to a well-rounded individual that works efficiently and is a shining example for our department.

Kendra was appointed to the post of Resuscitation Officer on the back of a Scuba Diving Instructor qualification. Kendra had no clinical teaching qualification or experience but was exceptionally determined and motivated to develop into a credible, knowledgeable and skilled clinical educator.

Kendra has studied to become an ILS, ALS and APLS instructor, to have the qualifications to enhance the knowledge and skills of UHNM employees through the delivery of mandatory training and the wider NHS by teaching on nationally certificated courses. Kendra has also completed the Silver Connect programme, completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Clinical Education, which required significant study in her own time and at a significant cost and has qualified as a GIC Instructor which allows Kendra to develop the next generation of Clinical Instructors.

She has also applied to begin a management degree in October, which will again require significant study in her own time.

Kendra is an excellent role model, nominated by her peers for all 4 of the Trust values badges and continuously receives positive evaluations highlighting how she creates a safe and conducive environment for learning and provides both positive and negative feedback in a compassionate, supportive and encouraging manner. In her nomination Kendra is describes as a rising star now, but due to her drive and determination she will be a rising star at UHNM for years to come.

Dr Alison Brind one of our Consultant Gastroenterologist has been a real inspiration to others, raising thousands of pounds to support the early screening of liver disease.  Always an active outdoor person and enthusiastic marathon runner, Alison has dedicated her life, with over 30 years supporting the British Liver Trust, to caring for patients and raising awareness of what is often a misunderstood and highly stigmatised health challenge.  Alison has been very open about her diagnosis of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer and has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of liver disease.  Recently she encouraged some 700 people to join her in a Park Run which not only raised awareness, but also raised over £6000 to support her campaign.  The work to raise funds is continuing and UHNM Charity has already supported the purchase of new equipment to help with early screening thanks to the work of Alison and her supporters. 

Donna Kent is one of our amazing maternity nursing assistant working in our early pregnancy unit.  Passionate about improving patient experience, Donna has led the charge in fundraising for the unit and for the past five years has been raising funds to provide memory gifts to women going through very traumatic events.  She has worked tirelessly to support patients and colleagues, looking for ways to improve the environment.  Her fundraising determination and resolve has made a huge difference for patients.