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CNO BULLETIN September/October 2023

 

A message from the CNO - Get winter ready with your flu jab

Welcome to the latest edition of the CNO Bulletin, a combined addition comprised of fantastic stories from the last two months.

As we head into winter, it is important that every member of staff is vaccinated against flu to protect yourselves, your families, colleagues and our patients.

You are able to recieve your jab at any of our drop-in clinics at University Hospital, Coventry and the Hospital of St. Cross, Rugby or through one of our peer vaccinators.

It is important to remember your NHS number when attending a drop-in clinic, you can find out more information by clicking here.

In this issue:

An update on the Electronic Patient Record (EPR)

As you will be aware, the introduction of Electronic Patient Record (EPR) – one of the largest transformations in the way we work ­– has been deferred.

A huge amount of effort was put in to being ready for launch, but work will continue at pace to ensure the momentum we have gained so far is not lost.

There will be many questions and any additional updates will be shared with you all as soon as they become available.

The advantages to patient care when EPR is introduced will be vast and we must make sure we make the most of this extra time to be fully prepared for the new Go-live date.

 

Private drop-in sessions being held to help you complete the 2023 NHS Staff Survey

The 2023 NHS Staff Survey enables you to provide confidential feedback to inform policies, practices and working conditions at the Trust.

To help provide a private space to complete your survey, the People Support Team will be hosting drop-in sessions on:

Monday 16th October in the Seminar Room on Ward 24 between midday until 4.30pm

Tuesday 17th October in the Clinical Sciences Building (CSB) at University Hospital, on the Ground Floor under the stairs between midday and 2pm

Tuesday 24th October in the Radiology conference room at 12pm until 2pm

Thursday 9th November at The Hospital of St. Cross all day

Remember, this is your chance to change your experience at work for the better and, in turn, improve the experience of our patients.

We have now reached the halfway point for this year’s NHS Staff Survey, which is open until Friday 24th November.

Search your inbox for emails from nhsstaffsurvey@iqvia.com to complete the survey.

 

UHCW Anti-Racism Toolkit and meet the Anti-Racism Shared Decision Making Council

We are delighted to have launched our UHCW Anti-Racism Toolkit. It is a resource to enable and empower all staff at UHCW to act according to Trust values and professional practice in challenging racism. Inspired by and adapted from the national nursing framework into a bespoke toolkit for UHCW, it will develop staff confidence in being inclusive and anti-racist and improve the well-being and experiences of our staff.

Anti-racism is the active process of identifying, eliminating, and preventing racism through our policies, behaviours, and beliefs.

There are 3 key areas of focus within the toolkit: challenging racism from colleagues; challenging racism from someone in a position of responsibility or authority; and caring, belonging, and authentic inclusion. It supports all staff: those that experience racism, managers who have racism reported to them, colleagues who witness racism or support colleagues, or those who have caused offence. It includes links to resources, support networks, and training.

The toolkit was developed by our Anti-Racism Shared Decision-Making Council, a multidisciplinary group of staff from all backgrounds including minority ethnic staff and allies, using their collective voice, lived experiences, and insights.

Congratulations to the Anti-Racism Shared Decision-Making Council for being shortlisted in the Royal College of Nursing Awards for the Workforce Initiative of the Year, for their development of the toolkit! Winners will be announced on Friday 10th November in a ceremony at Liverpool Cathedral.

 

 

At UHCW, as part of our journey in achieving Pathway to Excellence® designation, we have developed a network of shared decision-making councils made up of staff from across the organisation. The shared decision-making approach gives a voice to staff in shaping the work that affects them and amplifies their collective voice.

As part of this, our Anti-Racism Shared Decision-Making Council, supported by CNO, Tracey Brigstock, came together organically to support the Trust in becoming an inclusive and anti-racist organisation and help develop a network who will support these aims. Council members found value in using the shared decision-making approach to engage in anti-racism work and are enthusiastic to be shaping this and driving it forward across UHCW.
 

Hear from some of our council members:

“I am thrilled to be involved in the development of the anti-racism toolkit and to contribute to the goal of zero tolerance for racism. My past experiences with racism have served as a source of strength and motivation for me. I am determined to use my personal experiences to help uplift and inspire those who have been silenced by racism. By sharing my story and providing support, I hope to empower others to speak out against racism. Joining this council allows us to make a significant difference in eradicating racism in all forms. It is my belief that this toolkit will play a crucial role in challenging systemic racism and promoting positive change within our organisation.”

  • Subie Wurie, Research Sister

“The shared decision-making council has been a great way to incorporate inclusion as members are staff from all backgrounds who collaborate and champion the work. During the development of the toolkit, council members created a safe respectful environment for all staff to express opinions, share personal experiences with racism, and learn from these discussions. The toolkit will enable and empower our staff to be inclusive and value diversity across UHCW.”

  • Jayna Mistry, Orthoptic Community Lead

“Using shared decision-making to create the resource has been a great engagement tool for colleagues to share experiences to co-create something meaningful and local to this organisation. It has harnessed our UHCWi methodology. The support from senior leaders and executives in our shared decision-making council has been a welcomed step in the right direction!”

  • Nina Jaspal, Kaizen Promotion Office Specialist

“I joined the council to ensure that all staff are treated fairly and equitably. The toolkit is so exciting and new, I can’t believe we are making a change already!”

  • Abiebatou Jallow, Support Secretary/Receptionist

“Our anti-racism toolkit is unique as it is a collaboration piece of work between multiple professions across the trust. Producing the toolkit has sparked important conversations which will drive ongoing work after the launch of the toolkit. I hope this resource will give UHCW staff the confidence to address racism whilst supporting allies.”

  • Judy Porthouse, Senior Specialist Dietitian

“The toolkit supports staff to voice out loud what they are often afraid to say.”

  • Ayisa Alagbala-Jarrett, Cardiology Research Sister

“Being part of the development of the toolkit is deeply important to me because it ensures that all staff feel safe, empowered, valued, respected, supported and most importantly, be heard. Together our initiative sets a powerful example for positive change, a collective dedication to fairness and social justice and hopefully eradicate racism within the organisation.”

  • Shannon Stevenson, Senior Administration Officer

“Sitting on the shared decision-making council has been an amazing opportunity to hear of lived experiences in a psychologically safe space. Everyone taking part is so passionate and the impact this will make will be unprecedented. This is a huge step to enabling and empowering our staff here at UHCW to speak up and be heard.”

  • Millicent Aitken, People Support Officer- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

“It’s been great to be part of this council as a senior nurse within the Trust and I look forward to the implementation and use of the toolkit for all staff.”

  • Heather Price, Associate Director of Nursing, Education and Research

“It’s been such a rewarding experience seeing council members supporting each other’s learning and creating psychologically safe spaces for each other through respect, openness, and integrity. Shared decision-making has brought together an enthusiastic, caring, and innovative group who truly make a difference!”

  • Michelle Hartanto, Practice Facilitator

 

Black History Month 2023

The theme for Black History Month 2023 is Saluting our Sisters - recognising and celebrating the contributions of black women in Britain. Black History Month is also an opportunity for all of us to act against racism together.  

What is Racism?

Racism is grounded in a presumed superiority based on racial heritage or ethnic background. Racism is often defined as Prejudice + Power as it is the combination of prejudice and power which enables the mechanisms by which racism leads to different consequences for different groups.

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standards (WRES) Data shows that Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people continue to experience racism in the workplace and that they feel that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to career progression.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at UHCW

At University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW), our People Strategy (2023 – 2030) sets out a number of ambitions to becoming an organisation where our people feel valued and enabled. Themes relating to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are found throughout our stated ambitions.

This year’s actions against our people strategy have also included specific focuses on improving the experience of inclusion at the Trust. These actions include:

Establish a golden thread of belonging, inclusion and compassion through all our people development activity, culture development programmes, policies and employment practice

Launch an Inclusion Delivery Plan (2023 – 2025)

Lived experience:

The following is a statement from one of the members of the Anti-Racism SDM Council:

"My experience, like many other black women I have spoken to, admitted that sometimes being in the workplace brought out our more introverted tendencies.

"This is because when we are extroverted we are seen as 'loud', we feel that we are constantly walking a tightrope between being too much and not enough."

 

Black History Month Feature - Ayisa's Research Journey

“My name is Ayisa, and I am a cardiology nurse at heart. I worked in the Coronary Care Unit for 6 years. Then I decided to be brave, and I transferred to General Critical Care Unit with the vision to expand my nursing knowledge and skills. I spent 9 months in the unit and decided to move back to Cardiology to become a Research Sister.

“My journey into research started after I had to submit my own piece of research for my Master’s degree. Creating my own research study was challenging not only because I was doing it in the middle of a global pandemic, but also because research was a new world to me.

“The most difficult part was learning and understanding the theory and principles behind qualitative research while searching, collecting, and analysing the data for the study. Additionally, I had to take an expected leave from my studies to support my clinical area as Covid-19 was creating pressures on beds and a rising number of colleagues were contracting the virus.

“Resuming my dissertation after a long break was challenging but I was determined to create a piece of research that I thought that it could make a difference.

“My study had two issues that I believed the research world needed to address. I wanted to tackle the underrepresentation of women in cardiology research studies by creating a study that had a study sample made only of females.

“The second was to identify the reason why women with symptoms of heart attack delayed presenting to hospital, a phenomenon that some researchers have identified but was vaguely investigated.

“By the end of my degree and after spending months on end living among research books, I felt like I finally understood the power of research. I realised that research is behind everything that we have in our lives and how it can be used to discover new ways to manage patients’ treatment and conditions. In that moment I knew that I could help make a greater impact in patient’s care through a role in research. So, I decided to join the Cardiology research team.

“I am also honoured to be part of the Anti-Racism Shared Decision-Making Council, a multidisciplinary group of staff from all backgrounds including minority ethnic staff and allies, using our combined voices, and lived experience to eradicate racisms in forms within our organisation.

“1 year within my research role, I am still happy that I have joined the department. I get to learn new things every day, build a close rapport with participants and work colleagues, as well as lead my own cardiology research trials. I am currently managing a trial that investigates the use of artificial intelligence within healthcare which I believe will be the new way of delivery care in the future.”

 

Excellence Everyday

Our “Excellence every day” celebration recognises how our teams contribute to improved outcomes and positive experiences for our staff, our patients, and their families.

Our focus for September was “Excellence every day in shared decision-making.” Shared Decision-Making is fundamental to our Excellence journey as it is about creating a culture wherein all staff have a voice and are empowered to be involved in decision-making at all levels. Staff are collectively empowered to take ownership of their clinical areas to develop and improve practice, ensuring patients receive caring, safe, and confident care.

To achieve this, we use a councillor model wherein interested staff come together either in ward/unit, specialty or themed councils and receive dedicated time to meet on a monthly basis. They are supported by senior leaders at every level and are guided by a dedicated facilitator from the outset. They then represent their wider staff base, taking on suggestions and ideas on where areas to focus on improving, which can range from patient safety and experience, to staff experience, morale and the environment.

We are hugely excited about the growth of our Shared Decision Making model, now with 33 councils either actively meeting or in development. We look forward to sharing more of our Councils’ work in the future. If you wish to get involved with Shared Decision Making, please get in touch with our team via email: SharedDecisionMaking@uhcw.nhs.uk

Excellence Every Day in Quality

Our focus for October is “Excellence every day in Quality.” Quality is based on a culture of patient- and family- centred care, evidence-based care, continuous improvement, and a commitment to improving population health. Quality initiatives support patient safety, effectiveness, and experience.

Here are some great highlights demonstrating how quality initiatives lead to improved patient safety outcomes and positive experiences!

Lynda Mott and Lisa Fereday: Nutrition Guardian role

Lynda Mott, Modern Matron for Renal Services, and Lisa Fereday, Modern Matron for Cardiology, have developed a Nutrition Guardian role for the Trust. “The nutrition guardian allows staff to take ownership off this important aspect of care in a standardised approach to ensure we are offering the fundamentals of care on our wards. The key elements to nutrition and hydration have been included in a resource folder to help staff and then a nutrition guardian is allocated each day to help achieve these fundamentals of care through a tick list of allocated tasks and a ‘power hour’ where the focus is on getting our patients ready for mealtimes so we get it right each time.

 

We have had some lovely feedback from areas that have engaged with the roll out of the Nutrition Guardians, mainly around ‘ownership of the role’ and ‘engaging teamwork’ and this is exactly what we set out to achieve. The Nutrition Guardian is all about teamwork, from our student nurses to HCAs to ward mangers, dieticians, practice educators and Matrons. We have had some very positive staff willing to engage their teams and we are delighted to hear back from them about the positive change this is having on their areas.” -Lynda Mott & Lisa Fereday

 

Rachel Linden and Holly Pemble: Ward 31 initiatives in reducing pressure ulcers and improving pressure ulcer prevention

On ward 31 we have made a real effort to improve pressure ulcer care and prevention. Led by our Tissue viability link nurses, Rachel Linden and Holly Pemble, we have developed several initiatives which have greatly improved pressure ulcer prevention and care on the ward.

We wanted to improve our nursing documentation. With this in mind, Rachel and Holly, with the help of our previous ward clerk, Wendy Diaz, developed a skin integrity sticker which is used each shift by the trained nurse to document key aspects of pressure care. We’ve found this has been a quick and effective way to help our nurses document more detail and also prompt them to think about all these aspects when caring for our patients.

Holly and Rachel are always looking at ways we can share knowledge and educate our team through visual displays and education. ‘Pressure point’ displays in each area of the ward have been created as an easy access point for nurses to find guides on pressure ulcer categorisation and the difference between moisture and pressure. Tissue viability focus boards where we deliver power training and share learning from any pressure ulcers that develop on the ward. Rachel also shares this information with our team in our ward 31 newsletter.

Finally another way we deliver education is through “Stop the pressure” day, run every year nationally in November. We try and make this as interactive and creative as possible to encourage all our staff to get involved and really thinking about their role in pressure care and prevention.

 

Excellence in Quality within the Maternity Service

The maternity department at UHCW were inspected by the CQC in November 2023 under the domains Safe and Well Led as part of the new National maternity Inspection Scheme.

Overall, the department maintained their Good rating from 2019, which was celebrated within the department. The rating were Good for Safe and the department received Outstanding for well-led which was an improvement from Good.

The reasons for the Trust being the first university hospital in the UK being rated as Outstanding include:

  • The internationally acclaimed Pathway to Excellence designation
  • Being a part of the Tommy’s national centre for Miscarriage Research since 2016 in partnership with universities and 3 other hospitals
  • The design of staff training and bespoke programmes, including Human Factors to maintain the safety culture
  • One-stop clinics e.g. Inspire and OASIS clinics
  • A neonatal outreach community service since 2022
  • Diversity and inclusion were treated with high importance across maternity services
  • The ACP for Perinatal Mental Health was involved in 2 pieces of research, and managed diagnostics and referrals for perinatal mental health
  • The vulnerable care team provided continuity of antenatal and postnatal care to women exposed to sex working, Including parent education sessions offered in familiar settings or women e.g. street based outreach service
  • Referral pathway and support package for women drug and alcohol dependency
  • Midwives working in partnership with MAMTA to improve child and maternal health outcomes for local black and minority ethnic women to improve outcomes and ensure services provided are equal and inclusive
     

Paula Fogg: Removing waste and improving responses to pressure ulcers

Paula Fogg, Tissue Viability Clinical Nurse Specialist, has led a quality initiative addressing responses to pressure ulcers and shared the learning from this successful initiative at Stand Up. “I created a streamline process for the investigation of pressure ulcers. Following waste walks and consultations with clinical staff who are involved in the current process, an MS teams channel was created to make documentation accessible. A live tool was created that is used in flow and is visible and editable. This has allowed us to respond more quickly to making improvements.” - Paula Fogg, Tissue Viability Clinical Nurse Specialist.

 

Nina Jaspal: Partnerships to improve community health

“As a Cardiac Nurse by background I saw the health disparities within the South Asian population and how this directly affected health outcomes within cardiovascular disease. I reached out to British Sikh Nurses and founded the Restart A Heart campaign. We collaborated with the Resuscitation Council to provide CPR workshops in the community, with the aim of increasing awareness and teaching the importance of bystander CPR across Gurdwaras in the midlands and London region. Following this we have successfully trained over 240 people in providing CPR and carried out over 500 blood pressure checks to reduced undiagnosed hypertension within the community.” – Nina Jaspal, KPO Specialist

 

Centre for Care Excellence: Generating evidence-based best practice

Over the past year we have been supporting a key piece of work relating to the care of patients with delirium. We have established a collaborative venture between CEBIS (Dr Abby Kendrick) and the Centre for Care Excellence, to generate and establish the best evidence base for practice. This has seen Marie Lawrence and a team of nurses participate in a community of practice to critically appraise the evidence. Our Centre for Care Excellence has been shortlisted for the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer Awards.
 

"This work supports the capability and capacity of nurses to develop and deliver continuous care excellence through evidence and quality improvements" - Liz Lees-Deutsch, Associate Professor for Nursing and Clinical Academic Nurse (Integrated Discharge Team).

 

Internationally Educated Staff Shared Decision Making Council - Aisatu Jaiteh

The Internationally Educated Staff (IES) Shared Decision-Making Council is a group formed by 23 internationally educated staff from many different specialities across the trust (including nurses, physiotherapists, and midwives). The beauty of this council is that everyone is able to share their experiences and their ideas using shared decision-making to make a difference for IES across the Trust.

Our mission at the IES Shared Decision-Making Council is to support and empower IES staff at UHCW. We aim to do this by improving their personal and professional experiences, help them adapt and settle in this organization and being their advocates. We believe that by also supporting their mental well-being and supporting them with their professional development, we will have staff in this organization that thrive, who are happy and ultimately deliver excellent quality care to their patients. 

As an IES myself, I know how hard it is when you first move to a different country and practice your profession in a different healthcare system. I have been in the UK for almost 10 years, and I can say I have adapted and I happily live in this country. I have been able to progress in my career and I am now a Clinical Nurse Manager at the Targeted Lung Health Check. Like me, there are other leaders in the council who have also progressed in the careers and have joined the council to support IES who have more recently arrived. We aim to be role models and mentors for IES that want to progress and do more.

Looking back now, I would have loved to have a council in my organization that advocated for me, who I could speak to, and who could guide and support me in my journey when I first came to the UK. That’s why I strongly believe in this council and the positive impact it will have in this trust.

The council members meet on a monthly basis either face to face or via Teams, and we share different ideas that will enable us to fulfil our ambitions as a council. We will be holding regular Support Network Cafes for IES across the trust to network and have a chat in a relaxed supportive environment. We are also aiming to do clinical rounding at IES work areas where can listen to their concerns, ideas and find opportunities to make their experiences better.

If you would like to become a council member, you can get in contact by emailing our Council Facilitator on michelle.Hartanto@uhcw.nhs.uk. If you would like to know more about the council, you can also email me on aisatu.jaiteh@uhcw.nhs.uk.

 

Empowering staff in their areas - Updated Shared Decision Making Model

Key to our new Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional Excellence Strategy (2023-2026) is our Shared Decision Making model, where staff are empowered to be involved in the decision making process in their areas, giving them ownership and the opportunity to implement improvements. Over the last 6 months, we have restructured the model, working with existing councils to relaunch them and setting up new councils with teams that were interested. We are delighted to be able to share their progress with the launch of our first Biannual Celebration, which showcases each of our existing councils and gives an overview of their projects.

We now have 33 councils across UHCW, either actively meeting or in set up. Below are highlights of two of our active councils, Care of the Elderly and Ward 52.

Care of the Elderly Council

Our Care of the Elderly Council, chaired by Physiotherapist Ellie Bradshaw, are actively looking at ways to improve patient experience. Their first focus is renovating the escalation rooms on the ward, ensuring they are more comfortable. To do this, they are actively fundraising and are involved in a Wolf Run and a ‘Memory Marathon’ this month!

Ward 52 Council

Our Ward 52 (Trauma and Orthopaedics) Council, chaired by staff nurse Jane, are looking at ways they can better support patients who require assistance at mealtimes. The council, made up of registered nurses and healthcare assistants, supported by their clinical sisters and Ward manager, are uniquely placed as care givers to drive improvements around patient care and staff experience.

Shared Decision Making is about staff having collective ownership to develop and improve practice. It places staff are the centre of the decision-making process and sees managers take on a facilitative leadership role. To achieve this, we use a councillor model, wherein we form councils (at the request of staff) made up of four to six staff from a mixture of roles. They are given dedicated time, per month, to meet and work on improvements around patient safety and experience, staff experience and development, or the environment around them. They are supported by senior leaders at every level, with those leaders’ attending meetings upon request of the council to work in partnership with them, and unblocking barriers where required.

For UHCW staff, you can read the SDM Biannual Celebration by clicking here.

 

Drop-in Flu vaccination clinic now open for staff

The flu vaccine is now available across the Trust and is one of the biggest ways you can protect yourselves, your families and our patients this winter.

Colleagues are encouraged to get theirs as soon as possible, and line managers are being asked to release staff where possible to allow them to receive their vaccine.

All staff are encouraged to get their flu vaccine by dropping into a Flu Clinic at University Hospital or Hospital of St Cross, Rugby.

Please note that you will need to know your NHS number when attending a session. You can find your NHS number by clicking here.

University Hospital Flu Clinic:

Location: Outpatients Room AEB00004 (old playroom) between Clinic 8 and 10, on the ground floor.

Opening Times*: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 7:30 - 16:30; Saturday and Sunday: 07:30-12:30.

*Please note, the University Hospital Flu Clinic will be closed on 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th November.

For those aged 65 years and over, walk-ins are available at University Hospital between 13.00 - 14.00, Monday - Friday.

Hospital of St Cross, Rugby, Flu Clinic:

Location: Hospital of St Cross, Rugby, AVON House.

Opening Times: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th November: 08.30-16.00

If you have any questions of require more information, please contact Occupational Health on ext. 25420 or email Sandra.mogano@uhcw.nhs.uk

 

Care of the Elderly team clock up the miles to raise £5,000 for UHCW Forget Me Not Charity

There were sore feet and aching muscles, but it was mission accomplished for our intrepid Care of the Elderly team who took on a Memory Marathon walk.

Not only did they complete the 26 miles, they added to the £1,100 raised from a Wolf Run last month to smash through their £5,000 fundraising target in aid of the UHCW Forget Me Not Charity.

Money will be used by the Care of the Elderly Council to upgrade escalation rooms to improve the experience of patients with delirium and dementia.

Dr Nikola Baty, Medical Lead for the Dementia and Delirium Team, said: “Everybody pushed themselves on the walk and I am so very proud of the team.

“On the day of the marathon we had more than £1000 donated on our Justgiving page and each message was read out to keep our spirits high.”

The route started at The Millpool pub in Coventry with a first stop in Wolston and the home of Student Midwife Catherine Ryde, who greeted the 11 walkers with tea and pastries.

It was then on to the Hospital of St Cross where a mid-point lunch was provided by ISS and another nine walkers joined the group.

After walking along the canal and country roads to Brinklow, they headed to Coombe Abbey and University Hospital before completing their 11-hour adventure back where it all began.

Among the group was Physiotherapist Ellie Bradshaw, Chair of the Care of the Elderly Shared Decision Making Council, who also took part in the Starley Sportive 100km bike ride the next day and will be running the Coventry Half Marathon later this month.

Anyone who would like to donate can do so here.

 

World Sepsis Day - UHCW's Sepsis Heroes

This year, the Trust is focussing on our wonderful Sepsis Heroes – staff who have enhanced training in order to cascade learning to their peers and act as role models in the care of septic patients. There are currently over 70 Sepsis Heroes across the trust who have been tasked with creating sepsis awareness in their own areas, individual to their patient demographic throughout September.

Memory Kaswa from Ward 10 has acted as an exemplary Sepsis Hero for several years and has told us all about her role.

“I have seen how quickly haematology and surgical patients can deteriorate due to sepsis and always knew that I wanted to raise awareness on identifying and treating sepsis. Therefore, with my manager’s help, I signed up for a sepsis link nurse role when I joined ward 33 Urology/Ward 10 Surgical Pathway. This opened an opportunity for me to progress to a sepsis hero. This role allows me to keep student nurses, HCAs and Nurses more alert on sepsis management.

“My role is to teach staff members about sepsis.  I attend sepsis hero training in order to stay updated on new policies and procedures at UHCW. I also lead Ward 10’s involvement in Sepsis September events.  Our ward is very busy, however, I never stop talking about sepsis. In order to catch everyone, I use our huddle board to communicate both celebrations, goals, and any teaching that I find relevant. I encourage staff to work as a team to create sepsis boards and I use social media platforms to raise sepsis awareness to family and friends.  Patients discharged from ward 10 also go home with sepsis information leaflets, therefore, I ensure that all trained nurses undergo training to do some teaching before giving the leaflets, which raises awareness to patients too.

“I love the role. I know that by talking about Sepsis, I save someone’s life, or someone’s limbs and reduce length of hospital stays for our patients. It allows me to speak about something that I am passionate about and helps me build confidence on public speaking as well.”

All patients who are being discharged following a procedure or an admission where there is potential to develop an infection following discharge should be provided with a safety netting leaflet; ‘Sepsis: General Information’.  For patients who have had sepsis during their hospital stay, there is also a leaflet which discusses what they can expect in their recovery and signposts to post sepsis support; ‘Sepsis: A Guide for Patients and Relatives’. 

Both leaflets are available to download and print from the e-library. These leaflets have recently been reviewed and updated, with involvement and support from our Patient Partners, and Health Informatics, to improve their readability and usefulness to our Patients and their support networks.

If you would like to find out who your Sepsis Hero is, or if you would like to become one or nominate a member of staff to become one, please email the Sepsis, Infection Prevention and Control team at infectionprevention&control@uhcw.nhs.uk.


Falls Awareness Week 2023

The Trust celebrated Falls Awareness Week in September and joined in with Midlands regional themes for each day. Moving Monday included a feature on Colin and Anette Gutteridge’s show on Coventry Hospital Radio, discussing falls risks and a chance for staff and patients to dance along to the YMCA, and information was shared daily via the Trustnav Falls Prevention page about delirium, walking aids and hydration.

The Falls, Moving and Handling Lead raised awareness of the new falls risk assessments in EPR as by walking the wards with EPR change partner Baz and a workstation on wheels (WOW) and had good engagement from staff on wards 40 and 41. Wards 43 and 35 both had great Falls Awareness Week displays featuring information on delirium, cohorting, hydration and post-falls documentation.

 

Cardio-Thoracic Critical Care unveil new 'Elpis' room for relatives

The Cardio-Thoracic Critical Care (CTCC) Shared Decision Making Council, comprised of Jolene, Jessica and Jacqui, supported closely by Clinical Manager Linda Binding, have completed a wonderful refurbishment of their relatives’ area.

After taking feedback from patients and staff, the group focused their efforts on refurbishing a space on the unit designated for relatives who were waiting long periods, or for conversations to be had between staff and relatives. One year on, the council have finished the refurb of the room and have officially launched the space. The team held a room naming competition, for which sister Nabeela won with the name ‘Elpis’ meaning Spirit of hope.

The CTCC Shared Decision Making Council said “The consultants were amazed at the room andstated that it made a real difference to have a calming effect like the one given in the room, especially when you must talk to relatives about such things as end of life.

“We all had a vision of what we wanted this room to look like. We couldn’t be happier with the result, the hard work certainly paid off and was definitely worth it. We hope the relatives can find this room a place of comfort at their most distressing times”

The name (Elpis) meaning Spirit of Hope was an inspired name given by an exceptional sister Nabeela Khan (pictured).

 

Recognise our Maternity and Healthcare Support Workers with a nomination for a new award scheme

The Chief Nursing and Chief Midwifery Officers’ (CNO and CMidO) Healthcare support workers (HCSW) and maternity support workers (MSW) awards have been developed as a continuation of the CNO and CMidO awards, to reward the enduring compassion and vital contribution made by HCSWs and MSWs in England and their exceptional support of nursing and midwifery practice.

In today’s NHS, HCSWs and MSWs undertake a wide range of roles. These take place in a variety of settings: acute, mental health, learning disabilities, community, maternity, children and young people and primary care.

The award recognises HCSWs and MSWs who consistently demonstrate the NHS values and behaviours when fulfilling their everyday roles to provide excellent patient care; and inspiration to their colleagues and the patients they care for.

CNO/CMidO support worker excellence award nominations are back open and will be closing on Friday 10th November 2023. To nominate a support worker please complete this e-form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=kp4VA8ZyI0umSq9Q55CtvzWMgNQ9Oj1OuU5lfV63Vb1UN1U2NTNZSDBNWDhURkEzV1ZZWlZXOVZPNy4u

Please note - if you would like to submit a nomination for a group of support workers, you will need to submit an individual nomination form for each colleague.

You can find some additional guidance and exemplar forms here: HCSW/MSSW Awards - Healthcare Support Worker Programme - FutureNHS Collaboration Platform

 

Providing opportunities for nursing and midwifery leadership - UHCW Celebrates three years of membership with the Florence Nightingale Foundation

We are excited to announce that we are now members of The Florence Nightingale Foundation* (FNF) Academy. The FNF Academy provides the best choice for nursing and midwifery leadership development, ongoing support, and independent thought leadership. Being a Member of the FNF Academy makes you part of a rapidly growing community of like-minded nurses and midwives, giving you access to top-quality ongoing learning and connections through their dedicated online space.

What’s available to you?

  • Free unlimited access to exclusive FNF online modules
  • Network & Learn at FNF UK and Global Webinars, virtual and in-person events. You have exclusive access to view these are the event (a valuable contribution to your CPD hours)
  • FNF Connect - A mentoring scheme that aims to provide Academy members with the opportunity to learn from others, and to provide the wider community with an opportunity to give back to the nursing and midwifery profession by becoming a mentor

To access the FNF Academy and all it has to offer, head over to the ‘Leadership Opportunities’ page on TrustNav by clicking here.

Double delight as Amy and Isabella crowned latest DAISY Award Honourees

Taking a baby home after seven weeks on the Neonatal Unit can be a daunting prospect, but the compassionate guidance of Amy Taylor proved invaluable to one family.

Neonatal Outreach Nurse Amy has been rewarded by becoming our latest DAISY Award honouree..

Funded by UHCW Charity, the DAISY Awards are a globally recognised scheme which allow us to celebrate our incredible nurses and midwives through patient stories.

Amy’s nomination read: “Amy has been fantastic and has been supporting my daughter Annabelle with feeding, as she came with an NG tube.

“But she also went above and beyond as she has been helping us to manage with Annabelle’s Pavlik harness. Her daughter had one and so her experience has been invaluable.

“She has given us advice about everything from clothes to feeding positions and has also accompanied us to our appointments with the ortho team. She has been such a huge support.”

 

Midwife Isabella was commended for going above and beyond when supporting a new mother and her partner through their labour experience.

Her nomination read: "Our midwife, Isabella, was incredible throughout the whole labour. Myself and my partner must have told every person we’ve seen since the birth what a superstar she was.

“Being our first birth experience we were both very apprehensive about what to expect and we were completely put at ease due to how calming, confident and considerate Isabella was during the birth.

"For the entire labour experience, we felt like a real three person team - all working towards the same goal, with Isabella at the helm, guiding us through what in the end, was an amazing experience.

“We are so grateful for the care and support we’ve received from the staff at the UHCW all through the pregnancy and up to the birth. I really can’t imagine having another baby and not having Isabella as our midwife, she is an absolute credit to the hospital and to the NHS."

 

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