Edition 318
28 April 2017
Broadfield Rehabilitation ward recognised at
national Trauma Care Conference
1
In this issue
3 | Broadfield ward wins
Trauma Care prize
4 | Celebrating Excellence
Awards - People
finalists
5 | Celebrating Excellence
Awards - People
finalists
6 | Celebrating Excellence
Awards - People
finalists
From the Top
7 | Nurses’ Day 2017
8 | Revalidation
9 | Morston House IT
Amnesty
9 | Haywood Hospital
highest research
recruiters
10 | Thank You
At this time of year bank holidays seem to come around
very quickly. It doesn’t seem five minutes since the last
bank holiday and yet, here we are again. I would like to
thank everyone who is working this weekend and those
of you who will be supporting the system immediately
after the bank holiday. We know that holidays are busy
times for the NHS and you all play a key part in keeping
people safe and well at home.
This week started with an in-depth review of the
progress we have made in our well-led action plan. The
plan was developed following the rating we received by
the Care Quality Commission. I am pleased that the
board responded positively to the CQC report and many
improvements have been made.
The staff survey provided us with positive assurance that
things have improved in some of the key areas of the
well led domain however I have asked for a further
review of the well-led sections of each of the services
that were inspected last time. It is important to me that
you see and feel the impact of the changes that have
been made. A director or chief operating officer has
been assigned to each of the reviews and I look forward
to the feedback.
I would like to recognise our social care occupational
therapy colleagues for whom it has been a difficult
week, with a management of change starting. Your
contribution was recognised by directors on Tuesday and
the Board on Wednesday. Commissioning intentions do
create difficult situations for our Trust and for individual
members of staff and I am committed to ensuring that
we do everything we can to support you through the
process.
This month’s Board meeting was held on Wednesday
and I won’t say too much as David will update you in
next week’s edition of The Word. It is just worth
mentioning the update from the quality and safety
committee, which received the two year care strategy.
The strategy was developed to support our clinical and
social care teams to deliver services that are aligned to
our Trust values whilst ensuring continuous improvement
in working practices. It will strengthen accountability and
enhance governance throughout the Trust; from Board
to service user. A number of you contributed ideas to it
and I would like to thank those of you who took the
time to shape the future of the care we provide.
If you are not working this weekend, I hope you get to
enjoy some sunshine and time with friends and family.
Stuart
Stuart Poynor
Chief Executive
2
Broadfield Rehabilitation ward recognised at
national Trauma Care Conference
Members of staff from Broadfield rehabilitation ward are celebrating after being awarded the Trauma Care
Rehabilitation Prize 2017 by Trauma Care UK.
Partnership Trust physiotherapists Danielle Simkin and Claire Evans and Occupational Therapist Caroline Haynes
attended the Trauma Care UK Conference 2017 held in Stone.
They presented a case study on how working as a multi-disciplinary team and changing their approach to treatment
helped a patient, who had a significant brain injury which has required an inpatient stay for intensive
rehabilitation, to make positive improvements in their recovery.
The team centred their care around the patient and identified how they could best work together to suit the
patient’s needs. They joined forces with their approach to rehabilitation and used a combined therapy approach to
maximise potential recovery, and to overcome the initial barriers encountered when working as individual
disciplines.
The Haywood Hospital ward came joint first in the Trauma Care Rehabilitation Prize and were presented with a £50
cheque by specialist brain injury law firm Irwin Mitchell.
Broadfield Rehabilitation ward provides a specialised rehabilitation service for adults with acquired neurological and
musculoskeletal conditions and complex disabilities.
Trauma Care was founded in 1996 to address the need for commonly agreed standards of best clinical practice in
the management of trauma. It aims to improve the outcome of trauma victims by establishing best practice
throughout the whole chain of care through education, research and publishing.
The Trauma Care conference is held annually and provides an opportunity for people working in trauma care to
come together to share best practice.
3
Following the announcement of
2017’s Celebrating Excellence
Award finalists we are counting
down to the ceremony with a
more in depth look at all of the
shortlisted nominees.
This week we focus on the
successful candidates in the
People category.
People
Apprentice/Student of the
Year
Naz Bi, Workforce Development Apprentice
his requirement of delivering and
handing over the necessary
equipment to the users. Members
of the team said ‘Jack is an asset to the team’ and
‘Jack has been extremely supportive with everything
the team is working on’.
Naz is described as a ‘reliable, conscientious member
of staff who is always up for a challenge even if it will
push Naz to go beyond her comfort zone. Naz strives
Dawn Rodgers, Health Care Support Worker
to go the extra mile to support her colleagues and
will offer help and support to any member of staff.’
Dawn Rodgers is not a typical apprentice/student but
is a hard working healthcare support worker who
Naz was heavily involved in the organisation of a
wants to achieve the entry requirements for her to be
careers event in October 2016 and had to work
able to be considered for nurse practitioner training.
collaboratively with other local NHS trusts. On the day
she spoke with a number of high school students
Study has not been easy for Dawn but at no point
about her journey as an apprentice in the NHS,
has she lost sight of what she wants to achieve. Her
highlighting the variety of roles in the NHS. She was
commitment and determination to achieve the
very professional and thoroughly enjoyed the
required grades in order for her to progress has been
experience of being able to help showcase the many inspirational. She had no time off, she never failed to
positive reasons of becoming an NHS apprentice.
meet with her tutor nor complete the tasks set out
for her, and her commitment to her team and
patients was unchanged.
Jack Gould, Assistant Project Manager, IM&T
Jack was nominated for being ‘committed,
enthusiastic and determined to succeed in what is
asked of him’. Jack was asked to develop his team’s
intranet page. Using his own initiative and as a result
of his hard work, the team had an intranet page for
the first time.
Dawn has exceeded her own expectations as to what
she can achieve and she has done this through her
self-motivation and determination to succeed. Dawn
continues to support her team and patients 100%.
Dawn was described as ‘everything that the Trust
should be proud of’.
Jack was a key member of the device refresh team
last year and without him they would not have
achieved their deadline. He went above and beyond
4
Behaviour to Inspire
They focus on people by ensuring
that they feel safe and cared for
and never leave until the job is done.
Melissa Asbury, Social Worker
Melissa is a naturally positive person who bounces
into the office each morning with a smile, she is truly
pleased to be there and feels blessed to be going out
and visiting our service users. Melissa is supportive,
insightful and thoughtful towards everyone and
always offers support and guidance when required.
Melissa strives to ensure the best outcomes are
achieved for each individual. Melissa ensured that
staff from a failing agency were supported and
encouraged to remain in the care sector. This action
not only produced considerable cost savings for the
department and ensured that a fragile market did not
lose valued care staff but most importantly ensured
service users retained their staff and the consistency
that they require.
Melissa always remains calm, professional and works
within the Trust and social work values. She is truly
inspirational, a staff member that the Trust should be
proud to employ and she is a fabulous representative
of the social work profession.
Kevin Willans, Chief Information Officer
Kevin has taken over the management of the IM&T
team at a difficult period of time, doing so with
enthusiasm and a positive attitude. He has motivated
the teams and promoted a positive attitude. This has
strengthened inter-team relationships and enabled
cross-team working supported by the removal of
previous barriers to take the IM&T forward.
Kevin shows a positive and cheerful ‘can do’
attitude that has inspired not only the team but
others within the Trust. He is admired for his
knowledge, business skills and also his attitude
towards colleagues and day-to-day work.
He is able to discuss technical/complicated subjects in
a way that not only puts the message across but
inspires creative thinking and brings out the best in
the team. Kevin’s nominators said, ‘He inspires us to
do better, perform better and work better as a team.
His attitude to not only support the team on a work
but personal level is a credit to the Trust’.
The Asylum Seeker Team
The Asylum Seeker team is truly inspiring. They go
above and beyond what is expected of them. They
have recently supported a family of Syrian refugees
who were being persecuted. They worked together as
a team, using all the resources available to them, to
troubleshoot the issues that were affecting the family
and successfully got them moved to a safe place.
They are tireless in their quest to provide a service
that is there to solve the problems of those who for
all kinds of reasons cannot speak up for themselves.
They listen to histories that are sometimes harrowing
and upsetting and never flinch but soothe and calm
those who have experienced these tragedies.
5
Leading with Compassion
improvements.
Though all work done is a team
effort, Emma is ‘undeniably the driving force behind
Richard Beck, Clinical Director of
it’. Emma’s positivity and enthusiasm are infectious
Dental Services
and inspire the group to continue with their efforts.
Emma regularly highlights team achievements and
Dr Richard Beck has brought together the two
the quality of care patients receive is ‘clearly at the
divisions of dental care - North and South and has
heart of every decision she makes’. Emma allows
supported the staff to build a sustainable and
ideas to be put into action making staff feel
effective service which has been recognised as good
by CQC. Richard has achieved this with ‘excellent and empowered, thus enabling patients to benefit from
their specialist knowledge.
compassionate leadership skills’. He consistently
demonstrates commitment to both his staff and the
patients they support.
Patients are referred to the service because they
experience significant difficulties and Richard is
consistently compassionate towards them. Richard
has worked hard to support the whole health team to
create a calm and efficient working environment.
Challenging behaviours are never attributed to
people as individuals but are considered a problem
which simply needs to be understood and managed.
This approach permeates through the whole service.
As a consequence of his leadership all staff share the
same philosophy and care to their patients.
Tracy Snape, Team Leader
Tracy is team leader of an integrated health and
social care team and has had a ‘huge impact on the
people that she worked with’. Tracy is hugely
compassionate in everything she does and this is
reflected in the opinions of the team, ‘It is never
about 'I' with Tracy, it's always about 'we'’.
Tracy has led the team through change when people
have felt change-weary, always supporting the
positive aspects for both individuals and the Trust.
A team member says ‘there would never be a badge
big enough or bright enough for Tracy because she
Emma Lee-Bradbury, Ward Manager
shined so brightly anyway'. Tracy has retained staff
because they want to work there, creating continuity
Emma has set up new processes in order to ensure a
for service users. Tracy encourages people to work
more positive working environment for staff and
innovatively for the benefit of the service users. This
improved services for patients.
resulted in less complaints, staff being able to do
Examples include ‘Service Development’ where Emma their jobs well and ultimately achieve what they came
invites a colleague from each discipline to a meeting to work to do each day.
to share her vision and to work through various issues
with the ward. ‘Goal planning’ allows patients to
meet with a member of each discipline to review
progress and goals to ensure future advancement,
enabling patients to take ownership of their
rehabilitation. Staff and patients have been involved
in developing an innovative new training pack for
staff, which although in pilot stage, has led to
6
In recognition of International Nurses’ Day 2017, the Nursing and Quality team would like to
invite any Partnership Trust staff to drop-in to meet with Director of Nursing and Quality Rose Goodwin
to share their stories of #nurseheroes.
Has a nurse, midwife, health care support worker or student made a difference in your life? Share the
care you, your friends or family have received. If you are member of a nursing team, share your story of a
special colleague, or the person who inspired you to enter the profession.
***Staff are invited to have tea and cake with Rose on Nurses Day, Friday 12 May
2017, 12.30pm-2pm, Brampton Room, Morston House, Newcastle-under-Lyme.***
Share your stories and your cakes/biscuits with colleagues. Any donations of cake or biscuits will be
gratefully received .
Donate a blanket for the homeless
To mark Florence Nightingale’s birthday and International Nurses’ Day the Trust has contacted local homeless
charities and we’re asking staff to donate blankets to support our homeless.
If you would like to donate a new blanket or one in good condition then you can do so by bringing them to
the Professional Lead or Customer Service team on floor 2 of Morston House, The Midway, Newcastle -under-Lyme,
ST5 1QG by Monday 8 May. Email [email protected] for more information.
7
What happens when you don’t pay your renewal fees?
Revalidation is the process, introduced in April 2016, that all nurses and midwives in the UK need to follow to
maintain their registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Nurses and midwives must renew their
registration with the NMC every three years.
As well as re-registering with the NMC every three years, in order to retain registration with nurses and midwives
must also pay an annual fee.
The NMC recommends that the annual fee is paid well before the fee expiry date to ensure nurses and midwives
stay on the register for a further year. For information on how to pay your fee click here.
The Word spoke to a community nurse whose NMC registration recently lapsed due to late payment, she
described her experience:
When my NMC registration lapsed I was instantly taken off the register, this made me feel very upset and
disappointed in myself. I felt I had let my team and mangers down due to my own mistake. As soon as I realised
that my payment was late, I paid my fee and called the NMC to discuss what I needed to do to become active on
the register again.
I had to inform my managers and ask them to provide several references to the NMC. I was informed that it could
take anywhere from 2-6 weeks for my registration to be made active again due to my case being put in a queue
for assessment.
I found the whole process extremely stressful and I felt helpless. After two weeks I was becoming increasingly anxious. I was unable to work as a registered nurse and had to work as a healthcare assistant until my registration
was made active again. This not only had an impact on me and my financial situation but on my team as I was
unable to carry out my usual nursing duties which put further pressures on the service.
Overall it took around four weeks for my registration to become active again. I felt instantly relieved. The whole
experience was a huge learning curve for me. It has made me realise the importance of keeping up to date and on
time with my NMC payments. I have since set up a direct debit for my yearly NMC payments, which gives me
peace of mind that it won’t happen again. I would strongly encourage that all staff keep up to date with their
NMC renewal so that they do not have to encounter the stressful process that I did.
Visit the Revalidation intranet page for more information and support with
renewing your registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
8
Morston House IT
amnesty recoups £12,800
worth of equipment
A recent visit to Morston House from members of the
Information Management and Technology (IM&T) team saw
around £12,800 worth of unused IT equipment being
collected.
The team visited each floor, asking staff to hand over any
unused equipment they had in cupboards, on desks or sitting
around the office.
IM&T Training/Service Delivery Manager, Trish Nolan said:
“Our visit to Morston House just shows how much
equipment is sitting around which is not being used across
the Trust. For every piece of equipment that we recover,
there is a cost saving for the Trust to be made by way of
maintenance and licences for this equipment on an annual
basis, but also, by returning this equipment to stock, we can
reissue it to other staff, saving the cost of buying new
equipment. This was one of many visits to our sites and we
hope that staff will help us in identifying any unused
equipment so further cost savings can be made.”
Do you have any IT
equipment which is not
being used?
Email [email protected]
or look out for the IM&T team
visiting your base soon.
Sarah Appleby, Service Delivery Manager added: “This is a
further push in trying to recover as much unused equipment
from around the Trust to give to our staff that need it. We
have already had an amazing response over the last year, but
we know there is more equipment out there that could be
better used.”
Over the coming months the team will be visiting bases to
collect any unused or unwanted IT equipment including
laptops, desktops, keyboards, screens, mobile phones etc.
The team are particularly keen to hear from staff who may
have a desktop and laptop and are willing to provide
docking stations in return for the desktop.
Haywood Hospital is highest anti-TNF
comparison cohort recruiter March 2017
Well done to the team at Haywood Hospital who have
received a certificate from the British Society for
Rheumatology in recognition of recruiting the highest
number of patients to the anti-TNF comparison cohort of
the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics
Registers-Rheumatoid Arthritis Study in March 2017.
The study is for patients who have a rheumatic disease
(the most common being rheumatoid arthritis) and are
newly starting therapy with an anti-TNF biologic agent.
9
Thank You
provide and what an incredible team of people you are,
we will never forget you. As her family we can honestly
The Desmond Diabetes team based in Stoke received a say, we felt so relieved and lucky to have your expertise,
call from a patient who has been on the Desmond course skills and calmness at a time when we were all feeling
and wanted to say that it was ‘fantastic, absolutely
such stress. Thank you all so very very much.”
brilliant’. The patient fed this back to her GP
encouraging them to refer more diabetes 2 patients. She
A member of the Musculoskeletal Integrated Clinical
said ‘it’s everything you will ever need to know about
Assessment and Treatment service (MICATS) team
diabetes 2 all done in one day’s work’.
received a thank you this week:
Haywood Hospital’s Chatterley ward received a thank “I was seen in Stafford today by EA. She has gone above
and beyond her role today with her care for me. She has
you card from a service user’s family:
worked well into the evening to do a referral for me and
“To all the staff on the Chatterley ward that looked after I think she is a credit to your team and a lovely caring
our father, a big thank you for everything, we
lady.”
appreciated it. Our thanks again from all his family.”
The ward also received a kind gift of biscuits and
chocolates from the family.
Leek Hospital’s Saddler Ward received a thank you
from a patient’s family:
ZH, a member of the Sexual Health team in the North
has received thanks from the Probation Service and Stoke
Recovery Service this week regarding sessions that she
has delivered for their clients. Extracts read:
“I just wanted you to know how pleased I have been
with the quality of service provided by ZH. For around
“It's not often you find people as kind as you who go
two years now, Z and her team have been coming in to
out of their way to make things nicer for others. Your
deliver screening, advice and guidance….this service has
thoughtfulness is much appreciated and so are you,
been invaluable. Z and her team have never failed to
thank you for looking after L.”
arrive with enthusiasm which the service users pick up
on. She has been professional, knowledgeable and nonjudgemental when working alongside our residents. They
The Living Independently Staffordshire service in
East Staffordshire received a letter from a service user’s are often hard to reach and highly challenging, both in
their behaviour and complex needs. At no point has she
daughter:
been flustered and took everything they can throw in her
“We really want you all to know how incredibly support- stride.
ed and cared for our mother felt when she returned
home from hospital after her stroke. She could not have “ZH attended our service to provide a workshop to our
had a better team of people looking after her. Each and clients last Friday. 17 clients attended this group and the
feedback to the session she provided was amazing.”
every one of you showed her warmth and compassion
and her recovery at the age of 93 was without question
enabled by your visits. What a wonderful service you
Staff can now log their own compliments on the
Safeguard database. Please click here for a guide
on entering compliments from patients/service
users.
When forwarding compliments please ensure
specific details of the message are included so that
all messages can be passed on, and credit can be
given, to the correct teams.
The Integrated Local Care Team ASC based in
Burntwood received a thank you card from a service
user’s wife, thanking JH.