The latest cohort of winners were celebrated today in the third quarterly NBT Hero Awards of 2019.
The awards are a way for staff to recognise their colleagues for the small but amazing things that they do, or the caring, compassionate ways that they act on a daily basis. The awards are funded by Southmead Hospital Charity and presented by NBT's Chief Executive, Andrea Young. NBT's Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Evelyn Barker was also in attendance. The charity also provide an afternoon tea and a bite to eat, giving winners an opportunity to meet their fellow winners and have a chat.
As nominees and colleagues who had come to support them settled down before the ceremony, Andrea said:
"This is such an important thing that we can do for each other at NBT, letting colleagues know that you recognise and value them. It's one of my favourite parts of my job, being able to meet you all and celebrate with you."
Read the full nominations for all of July's winners below:
Lesley McAllister - Performance and Data Quality Lead
I have known Lesley for a number of years working within the Medicine division, and recently I have had the privilege of working alongside her in an interim role.
Lesley has a very calm and professional manner when training and working alongside the apprentices.
Nothing is ever too much trouble, she shares her years of knowledge and skills with them all and is very supportive and encouraging towards them.
Super mentor and role model and anyone working alongside her is in a very privileged position to learn from a true professional.
Debbie Mullin - Administrator, Patient Safety and Assurance
Debbie is an absolute gem in the Patient Safety team. She manages to convey a feeling of calm and confidence when dealing with and supporting others within the team and across the trust.
In her role, Debbie regularly meets and liaises with a wide range of staff from across NBT -from Board members to frontline staff. She is calm, supportive and confident in all of these dealings.
The team has undergone a significant change in structure and leadership and without Debbie's organisation and consistency the team would have not been in the position they currently are.
Debbie is extremely reliable, she always knows all the detail behind incidents and the necessary connections and implications. Her grasp of the context and what everything means is extraordinary given she isn't clinical. She deals with the most senior people and the most junior with the same grace, smile and kindness.
Without her, the patient safety function for incidents and investigations across the trust would simply grind to a halt.
I can think of no-one else that I have come across since being in NBT that deserves to be recognised as a Hero more than Debbie.
Claire Foster - Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children
Claire has worked in the role as the named nurse for Safeguarding Children for over 12 months and since the start of this year she has also acted into the role as adult lead for safeguarding. Claire has supported the Safeguarding team through challenging times and staff shortages, and always maintains a positive approach to providing an excellent service across the trust. She has supported other colleagues in managing the day to day work of a busy safeguarding team, always made sure that commitments to training obligations are met and has ensured the trust is represented at the various stake holder meetings despite high demand on her time. Even though Claire's work load has been excessive, she always has time to approach each concern with compassion and dedication.
Claire is an excellent leader - giving much needed support & encouragement to the team, in what has been a very difficult and at times stressful period. She encourages colleagues to take on challenges and supports them to achieve their goals, maintaining humour and professionalism at all times. Claire is very much liked and respected by everyone in the Safeguarding Team and I can think of no one better to be awarded an NBT Hero award.
Samantha Wells - Senior Cardiographer
Sam has been an absolute star the past 6 months. She's held the Cardiographer team together during staff shortages and sickness and kept the department running smoothly. She's also shown a lot of personal resilience when things have been tough at home and she's had a few health issues. She comes in every day with a smile and always comes up with solutions to problems, has a positive attitude, and helps keep the team going. Sam I want to personally thank you for a great job!
Rebecca Holmes - Practice Development Teacher
Becky is a well-respected member of the apprenticeship team supporting trainee healthcare assistants on the level 2 and 3 health apprenticeship programmes. She embodies the trust values in her work and is a true NBT Hero.
Becky supports all her apprentices to an excellent standard and I have seen her empathy and encouragement when the learning journey sometimes gets tough.
She has a can do attitude and is always striving for excellence within the team. She gets the most out of her Healthcare Assistant apprentices which in turn leads to them embedding the trust values, including putting their patients first.
As if this wasn’t enough, Becky has stepped up to a new role, part of which is supporting new assessors who have just joined the team. In a team that supports staff development in the Trust it is great to see Becky supporting members of her own team in the same conscientious manner as she approaches her apprentices.
Emma Newland - Performance and Operations Manager, Neurosciences
Emma not only runs an incredible office full of amazing, hardworking staff who she goes above and beyond for, but also does amazing work for the patients and cares for each person individually and not just as a bed statistic.
Emma has run in the Bristol 10k to raise funds for Southmead Hospital Charity and more often than not works tirelessly through lunch breaks and after hours.
Being a welfare officer, she was incredibly understanding and helpfu when I went to her in my time of need and has helped me feel so much happier in my working life at NBT.
Augusto Sancho - Community Dialysis Team Leader
Augusto took on the Band 7 post last summer but was effectively doing the job for 18 months prior to this while there was a vacancy. Since taking on this role the community dialysis team have excelled.
The service has been hugely improved in terms of quality and patient numbers seen. Process and patient pathways have been improved, just a few examples include nurse lead clinics in the place of some home visits being more time efficient and a new income, generating income from ad-hoc visits which were previously not billed for, galvanising the team, improved PD peritonitis rates to above the national average, empowering his nursing colleagues to create change and improvement in service and quality.
Where previously the team felt slightly flat at times, they are now enthusiastic, empowered, work brilliantly together and very happy in their roles. It is a pleasure to see and work with them.
Janne Britton - Compliments, Complaints & Clinical Governance Co-ordinator
Janne works tirelessly in the division as complaints coordinator. However I would like to nominate her for an NBT Hero award for her work setting up and supporting the Clothes Bank.
Having a 'bank' of new clothes we can give out to patients supports our enablement philosophy and “End PJ Paralysis” by ensuring patients always have clothes to wear rather than relying on hospital gowns. It also means we never discharge a patient home in a hospital gown anymore which is so important for their dignity.
This project was kindly supported by Southmead Hospital Charity but Janne has been instrumental in buying the clothes, sourcing store cupboards, recruiting volunteers to help, keeping an eye on the stock and tidying the cupboards.
A lot of this is done in her own time and I know without Janne taking this on and driving it forward it wouldn't be the success that it is.
Janne keeps an eye out for suitable clothes and often buys them at the weekend and brings them in her car. She has worked closely with the therapists to know what the best sort of shoes, trousers etc. are for our frailer patients. Janne has gone the extra mile with this project and rightly deserves recognition.
Martyn Pompey - Porter, Discharge Lounge
Martyn works as a Porter in the Discharge Lounge and supports the team with his great sense of humour and caring nature. He has really embraced huddles and adds to these with recommendations and supports co-workers to achieve a shared goal.
Martyn works hard to ensure all the patients know what is happening next in their discharge process and keeps patients well informed of the process in the lounge. He brings a real motivation to the team he works with and has really helpful suggestions and recommendations that help both his team and the patients.
He has an understanding of trust pressures that he applies to his duties to ensure we have great performance in the lounge, and contributes positively to the operational running of the trust.
He can regularly be seen chatting to patients and going out of his way to help them and their family get to their transport and is generally a positive influence in the lounge. Thank you Martyn!
Claire Adams - Acute Pain Specialist Nurse
Claire works within a team of Acute Pain Clinical Nurse Specialists to deliver a first class service. At the beginning of the year, the team were without a lead and service provision was an incredible challenge. The clinical lead and nursing lead were unexpectedly out of work and the team needed support. Claire's dedication to the role and primarily her patients meant that she became the natural lead for the team. Claire went above and beyond, working additional shifts to ensure her colleagues were supported and all patients were seen. Claire adjusted the rota and escalated concerns appropriately. Claire was able to not only support the team during this difficult time, but she has taken positive steps forwards to build teamwork and provide direction to the service moving forwards. Claire is an absolute hero within the Acute Pain Service.
Olivia Maskell - Advanced Nurse Practitioner, CALS
Olivia has recently taken on the clinical governance lead for care of the elderly directorate, with Dr Nigel Jones, and has put her heart and soul into this role.
With the passion that she injects into everything she does, she has significantly increased ward nurse attendance and engagement in all clinical governance areas.
All of our Care of the Elderly wards now have a clinical governance file, made by Olivia, with relevant information, and attendees to the meetings also feed back to their nursing colleagues.
Olivia's enthusiasm and hard work (often in her own time) can only benefit our patients as our nursing staff will be better informed in areas of good practice, as well as those needing improvement. Ultimately this will support the maintenance and improvement of safe, high quality clinical care.
For all her hard work and enthusiasm she is a Care of the Elderly hero.
Ben Pope - Workforce Planning Lead
Ben frequently goes out of his way to not only delivery workforce information requests but to consider the actual need behind the data, and works to create and present this in the most useful way to teams and individuals.
He has been fundamental to the Trust aligning activity, workforce planning and finance in this years’ business plan, both at a Trust wide and system level.
His approach and commitment has most recently been demonstrated in the work up to the CQC Use of Resources preparation, where Ben has worked tirelessly to help us present in a coherent way the progress we have made on the people agenda of the Trust, aligned to SLM and the Trust strategy.
Ben is a fundamental part of our team and given parts of his work are largely data driven he often does not get the recognition he deserves, but he is definitely one of our heroes.
Dr Zeino Zeino - Consultant Gastroenterologist
Dr Zeino has made it possible to develop an "Endoscopic Ultrasound" service in NBT.
This is a new service which will benefit our patients and save them waiting a long time to have this procedure done in other trusts.
He has spent a lot of time and made great efforts over a period of more than 18 months to convince the management and commissioners that this service would benefit NBT patients and would enhance the status of our hospital. During this period, I witnessed how he attended many meetings and was engaged in endless correspondence and negotiations.
He even managed to secure part of the funding with the help of different local charities. After all of Dr Zeino’s hard work and determination, this service has finally been started recently.
I am very impressed and inspired by what he has done and as a large part of his efforts have been unrecognised by many people I would like to nominate Dr Zeino as an NBT hero.
Paul Grimes - Managed Learning Environment Manager
Paul is the manager of the Managed Learning Environment (MLE) for NBT. He alone runs all the data extracts for board meetings, uploads the e-learning MLE programmes and manages back office functions.
Paul is incredibly busy meeting the demands of clinical users but is always so positive and helpful. He will go out of his way to assist with any requests regarding MLE and will accommodate the tight deadlines imposed.
Paul is an inspiration to others due to his optimistic nature and willingness to constantly improve both the training and education of all grades of staff but also the reporting of compliance and development of training requirements.
Thank you Paul, for never tiring of the constant requests for help, which require significant amounts of your valuable time. You always deliver with a smile on your face and a willingness to go the extra mile!
Kayley Sealey - Healthcare Assistant, NICU
Kayley is a dedicated and an extremely caring HCA on the neonatal unit. Nothing fazes Kayley and she strives constantly to improve the experience for the babies and the families. She is always smiling and nothing is too much trouble and she is very approachable.
I am confident if she had to, Kayley could run the busy NICU without a blink of an eye! She is very supportive of the matron and senior team and when asked to do something, you can rely on Kayley to get it done quickly and efficiently and to a high standard.
Kayley is friendly and helpful and all the parents like her. She understands the intricacies of running a busy intensive care unit and the internal politics. On many occasions she contributes to improving the processes and always has good ideas on how to improve the running of the unit. She has a can do attitude and is a pleasure to work with. I truly believe that when her children are older that Kayley can build on her excellent skills and attitude and undertake her nurse training and become a wonderful registered nurse as well.
Janet Neave - Lead Nurse, Integrated Discharge Service
Janet has been team lead for the Integrated Discharge Service (IDS) nurses during a very challenging time for the trust. She has approached this task with fantastic leadership skills, giving the expanding team the confidence they need to progress with the trust’s goal to discharge more patients from our care.
Janet’s knowledge and skill is second to none, there’s nothing she doesn’t know about discharge planning and the legalities around it.
She leads the team by having an ever-present open door approach, which ensures all issues or concerns within the team can be quickly managed, and supported.
Although Janet is the lead nurse for the discharge nurses, she is a great support to the rest of the IDS family, working collaboratively with the social care teams, rehab teams and outside partners to give an all-round picture.
Lynne Blackwell - Senior Staff Nurse, Interventional Radiology
Lynne is an excellent senior staff nurse who has been managing our department beautifully in a kind and supportive manner.
We run as a day-case unit for elective patients but have been open to inpatients for many months and indeed most winter periods. Some days can be a real challenge, but this lady really gets stuck in and gets the job done. Lynne never asks us to do anything that she wouldn't do, and is so completely approachable about any concerns we might have.
She deserves recognition for all her hard work and for keeping our department running so smoothly. She goes way beyond the call of duty, often staying on extra hours and coming in on days off so her team won’t be short staffed. She truly is an asset to this hospital and should be rewarded.
Jane Caven - Staff Nurse, Plastic Surgery Outpatients
Jane is a wonder! She has worked at the trust for over 40 years, and still remains as committed, caring and compassionate as ever.
Her work ethic is second to none, putting in many more hours than her contract states, despite having an extremely busy family life. Her knowledge of Plastics and Burns makes her an invaluable teacher and team member. Her easy-going manner means she connects with the more challenging patients we can sometimes encounter.
She is a true Plastics Hero.
Sue Jones - Senior Medical Secretary, Renal & Transplant
Sue shows all the characteristics embodying the Trust values with a dedicated passion to provide exceptional administration support to the Renal Consultants and the wider renal service. Sue also shows genuine dedication to the patient group and goes far above and beyond in her work to ensure the work she does is always to the benefit of the patients.
Sue often works far beyond her hours and never leaves until she feels her job is done for the day. Moreover, she never asks for the extra time back as she genuinely loves to help patients receive exceptional care and a first class experience.
She is an extremely accomplished, dedicated and tenacious individual. Sue regularly takes on the work of others to aid the smooth running of the renal service, and does this without complaint.
Overall Sue has provided the Trust with years of dedicated service, demonstrated exceptional patient care and is well loved and respected by both the clinical and non-clinical team within the renal and transplant service. I feel it is often easy to put a colleague forward for a specific reason that makes them a hero but the way Sue has delivered her job tirelessly over 30 years makes her a hero to the renal service.
Sue is a stalwart of the service, and is a most deserving NBT Hero.
Matthew Champion - Sustainable Healthcare Co-ordinator, Sustainable Development Unit
Living and becoming as sustainable as possible is of critical importance to each of us and something as an organisation we must strive for and encourage others to join in. The trust’s Green Impact programme is one way of doing this. In previous years Green Impact has attracted about 15-20 staff teams… and then we employed Matt Champion. Matt’s role is to engage with staff throughout the Trust and encourage them to get involved. Matt does this in a brilliant way through his personable approach, using quiet persuasion and showing people what big things can be achieved by taking relatively small steps and by simply getting involved.
Matt’s manner, behaviour, professionalism and strong values have resulted in this year’s Green Impact campaign attracting 60 teams, with significant numbers of clinical teams for the first time and amounting to as many as 1500 individuals getting involved to make a difference in their workplace, for the Trust and for their colleagues.
He is quiet and unassuming but people shouldn’t be fooled about just how persuasive he can be. Matt Champion is our Green Champion and definitely one of my NBT Heroes.
Leroy Powell - Behavioural Healthcare Assistant, 7B
The Stoke therapies team (PT, OT, SALT) on ward 7B would like to nominate Leroy Powell for NBT Hero award.
He consistently receives positive feedback from every member of the therapies team on 7B.
He is always really responsive to recommendations, has a really good manner with complex and challenging patients and family members - he is extremely warm natured.
He always provides appropriate feedback RE: patients’ function and is happy to support therapists with therapeutic management plans.
He always happy and builds a good rapport with patients, families and staff members.
He always approachable and takes initiative with patients and motivates them for rehab.
He definitely contributes to the ward being a fun and productive place to work!
Annie Hancock - Administrator, Urology
Annie supports the Uro-Oncology Cancer Nurses and is an essential member of the team, helping to manage patient enquiries and concerns. She is always willing to find the time to assist the nursing team and makes our work much more manageable as a result.
Annie always works above and beyond her job role, and we find her invaluable. She has managed an ever-increasing workload, remains positive and strives to do her best for the team. A real hero.
Kim Bees - Case Manager, CALS
I would like to nominate Kim Bees as she is truly a superhero for her work on 32A and within CALS.
She is a very valuable member of our team and makes a huge impact on our patients’ journey.
She is kind, patient and caring with not only her colleagues (who she would go to the end of the earth for) but also her patients and their relatives/carers.
She keeps the medical team in line and ensures that lines of communication between all the relevant teams and patients are always open to ensure the patients journey through to discharge from hospital is an on-going and timely process.
Her organisational skills and problem solving skills are unprecedented. Kim has been working in NBT and CALS for many years now and has always been willing and ready to lend a helping hand and take on new challenges with fervour.
The patients on 32A are often frail and complex yet as a team we are often able to facilitate significant numbers of discharges a day. Kim plays a part in this as her vast experience in hospital discharge and her understanding and knowledge of many of the patients and their likely pathway to discharge at an early stage. This is of huge benefit to our patients, their wellbeing and physical ability to return home or alternative placement in a timely manner.
Kim is such an amazing role model and fantastic resource that we are extremely proud to have working with us.
I would like to nominate her as a NBT Hero for going well above and beyond for her patients, colleagues and the trust as she works tirelessly to support her team members in all aspects with a smile and great warmth.
Congratulations to all!