AN incredible 11,000 staff and volunteers work across our county’s hospitals – the Churchill, John Radcliffe, Nuffield Ortho-paedic Centre and the Horton General in Banbury.
A handful of them have been nominated by their colleagues who want to share their appreciation of the people behind the scenes, and they were the stars at the second annual staff recognition awards run by the Oxford University Hospitals Trust.
The trust shortlisted candidates – hospital staff and volunteers and services based within the trust – for seven categories: compassion, excellence, impro-vement to service, leadership, partnership, volunteering and teamwork.
At an awards ceremony held last month in the Orangery at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, the gold, silver and bronze awards were presented.
Today, in the second of a series of features looking at the stories behind the nominations, we highlight the winners and finalists in the compassion and teAmwork categories.
Compassion Award Finalists in this category were:
- Sarah Cheetoe, senior staff nurse, Adult Intensive Care, John Radcliffe
- Liz Neale, manager/sister, Renal Unit, Milton Keynes
- Jacky Rawlings, advanced nurse practitioner, Head and Neck Cancer Unit
- Dr Hywel Jones, consultant geratologist
- Ellen Kandukira, staff nurse and Resty Quiatchon, clinical support worker
GOLD AWARD WINNER
RENAL unit manager Liz Neale was recognised for going the extra mile.
Lindsay Bell, Claire Cox and Anne Middleton nominated Ms Neale, who works at the unit in Milton Keynes.
She works with patients who receive dialysis.
The nomination form read: “Liz helps to organise events in her own time for the patients.
“At Christmas time she came in on her day off and had cooked loads of food for the staff who were working. She made up bags for the patients with Christmas cards and presents for them, which made Christmas that extra bit special for those having dialysis.”
SILVER AWARD WINNERS
- Clinical Support Worker Resty Quiatchon and staff nurse Ellen Kandukira
STAFF nurse Ellen Kandukira and clinical support worker Resty Quiatchon were honoured for their hard work in the John Warin Ward at the Churchill.
They were nominated by ward sister Karen Summers after they helped a homeless woman who had been admitted to the ward get back on her feet.
As well as treating her medically, they washed and groomed her.
Ms Kandukira said: “I didn’t expect it because we look after patients every day. I was surprised to have my name nominated because it is something we do every day.
“But this particular lady was living rough. She was in a state.”
They cut her hair and cleaned her.
Ms Summers said: “All the nurses do a good job on the ward but in particularly there was a patient they worked very hard on who was homeless.
“It was actually quite touching.”
She added: “It was a particularly sad case of a lady who was living rough. They cut her hair and gave her a really good working over.
“It was quite amazing and the impact on her was amazing.”
Mr Quiatchon said: “When I won I was overwhelmed. I didn’t expect this, I was surprised and I am happy now.”
BRONZE AWARD WINNER
- Advanced nurse practitioner Jacky Rawlings, left, receives her award
ADVANCED nurse practitioner Jacky Rawlings has devoted more than 20 years of her career to caring for patients with head and neck cancer.
She was nominated by colleague Vanessa Linton at the Churchill Hospital and received the bronze award for ensuring that her patients receive high-quality care.
Her nomination read: “Jacky is loved by her colleagues and patients alike for her dedication and cheery smile.
“It was Jacky’s enthusiasm and devotion to caring for such a complex patient group that inspired me as a student nurse 20 years ago.
“She continues to teach the next generation and is never too busy to assist a colleague in need.”
TEAM AWARD
FINALISTS in this category were:
- Enhanced Recovery Service, Thoracic Surgery Team, Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Datix Team, Clinical Risk Management
- Supported Hospital Discharge Service, Assessors and Assistant Assessors
- Community Midwife team – Jennifer Rawlinson and Emily Hollingworth
- Women’s Clinical Governance Team
- Churchill Thermal Ablation Team
GOLD AWARD WINNER
- OUHT vice-chairman Geoff Salt, right, presents the award to the Datix Team
The Datix Team from Clinical Risk Management won the Gold award in this category.
From April to September 2012 the team rolled out the Datix electronic reporting system to the whole trust.
Nuala Buchan-Brodie, who nominated the team, said: “The team has demonstrated amazing qualities of adaptability, dependability, attention to detail, partnership working with staff of all levels, patience, a sense of humour, a keenness to learn new skills.
“This has been done in the face of huge challenges.”
She added: “They have demonstrated that it is not impossible to roll-out a new IT system in challenging circumstances with only a small number of staff and still achieve excellent standards.”
SILVER AWARD WINNER
- Elaine Barclay, Kimberley Green and Jo Jones from the Supported Hospital Discharge Service team
THE supported hospital discharge service team won the silver award.
The 12 office staff and 30 support workers work hard to support patients of the John Radcliffe Hospital and Banbury’s Horton General Hospital to go home and offer further support to them in their own homes for up to 14 days.
From April to November, almost 1,000 patients were supported.
In the same period, the team has completed 24,000 visits in the community to patients.
Kimberley Green, administration officer, said: “All of the team are delighted. It is nice to know that we are appreciated and to get recognised for the work we do for getting the patients out.”
Liz Hobbs, who nominated the team, said: “It was a new service set up in December 2011.
“The team has built up a fabulous rapport with patients, nurses and other staff.
“Nothing is too much trouble. They go that extra mile for everybody.”
She added that the team will be expanding to welcome new support workers and registered nurses.
BRONZE AWARD WINNER
- The Churchill Hospital Thermal Ablation team collect their award
The Churchill Thermal Ablation team has been honoured for their work with patients who suffer from lung, liver or kidney cancers.
They were nominated by Dr Shaun Scott from anaesthetics.
He said: “The members of the team integrate harmoniously to enhance the comfort of the patients in our care, whilst striving at all times through collaborative working and problem solving to ensure efficient throughput, minimising patient waits and delays, resulting in only one ‘on the day’ cancellation in five years.
“They have developed an innovative process that allows the patient’s target tumour or tumours to be virtually immobilised without requiring deep general anaesthesia, thus facilitating rapid treatment and minimising x-ray and sedative drug doses whilst providing ideal patient comfort and assisting rapid recovery.”
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