Monthly archives: September 2019

Heartbeat: Community fundraiser provides welcomed distraction

Kind hearted members of the community came together recently to hold a fundraiser for the Priory Ground ward at Sandwell Hospital to help purchase some much needed distraction play equipment.

Patrons of the Horse and Jockey pub, led by Manager, Simon Hawkes took it upon themselves to take on the challenge of raising the much needed funds both in an effort to bring the local community together and to give to a very worthy cause.

In total, the fundraiser managed to raise over £1000 which will go towards equipment on the ward.

Supporting the event from our Trust was Head of Your Trust Charity, Johnny Shah, he said: “We are very grateful indeed for the local community rallying together as they did to help us fundraise for added value services at Priory Ground. These will really help children and young people when they come into the department, making their experience just that little better. It is the support of local people – many of whom have visited their loved ones at Priory Ground – that is so important to Your Trust Charity and will help us care for many more children and young people in the future. Thank you to all!”

Cycle September – get cycling this month

Birmingham City Council are joining forces with ‘Love to Ride’ to promote their cycle challenge – Cycle September which runs through the whole month. The idea of Cycle September is to get as many people as possible cycling, and recording their journeys on the Love to Ride website/app as well as encouraging others to take up cycling where they will be entered in to a draw for cycling related prizes.

For more information please email comnnected@birmingham.gov.uk or visit www.lovetoride.net/birmingham.

Star of the week – Joanne Simpson, Trust Interpreter

Congratulations to Joanne Simpson, Trust Interpreter who is this weeks Star of the Week!

Joanne was nominated for the award by Health Visitor Ruth Wenban-Smith who wanted to recognise Joanne for her fantastic service to both families and colleagues.

Nominating Joanne for the award, Ruth wrote, “Joanne gives families the comfort of a friendly familiar face, sometimes when they are struggling with difficult life events like a baby in the neonatal unit, or a difficult pregnancy. She is friendly, approachable and helpful, and I know that other professionals are always relieved when Jo arrives at an appointment to bridge the language barrier for them.

Joanne is the only Albanian interpreter in the Trust, she’s great at her job, and her pleasant personality and expertise make a huge difference to families in her care.”

If you have a colleague who you feel has gone above and beyond the call of duty and deserves recognition and has demonstrated our nine care promises, nominate them for the Star of the Week.

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Yoga event at Sandwell Valley: 15 September

A special yoga event will be taking place at Sandwell Valley on Sunday 15 September from 12.30pm. The Yoga will be facilitated by Laura Dunn who does the classes at Sandwell on Wednesday evenings.

It will cost £6.50 to attend and  no previous experience required just ensure you bring yourself, either a mat or towel due to weather.

Tickets can be brought by clicking the link.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yoga-at-sandwell-valley-tickets-68989881593

Get connected at your nearest cyber café

As part of our digital journey, we have launched new cyber cafés across our Sandwell, City and Rowley sites.

Though this is initially a pilot scheme, the cyber cafes will allow colleagues who wouldn’t usually have access to a computer the ability to be able to:

• Download their latest payslips
• Find out about the latest goings on within the hospital via myConnect
• Use e-rostering to check shifts
• Check their emails
• Use the internet

The bespoke computers are tailored for easy and simple use and are accompanied with a user guide should users struggle with any of the basic functions.

Our first three cyber cafés can be found at the below locations:

We need your feedback

We believe your feedback is crucial in order for the cyber cafés to succeed. Tell us how we can improve our cyber cafés by completing the this short survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6JCLPRP

Note: Paper copies of surveys will also be available at the cyber café locations listed above.

For more information regarding cyber cafés, please call ext. 5188.

Job of the week: NMP and Midline lead secondment opportunity

Are you a non-medical prescriber? Do you enjoy being at the forefront of service development and improvements in patients experience? If so we would like to hear from you. We are looking for expression of interest to undertake the role of NMP and Midline project lead. This is a full time role at band 8a.

This is a 12 month position with a remit of working with the interim associate chief nurse to develop and maintain robust governance structures surrounding non-Medical Prescribing across the organisation and development of the skills and governance structures to support point of care midline insertion across the Trust.

Please submit your expression of interest to helencope@nhs.net by Monday 16 September, 5pm. Following review of the expressions of interest you may be called to a more formal interview on Wednesday 18 September.

Note: Please ensure you include why you feel you are right of this role and what development you feel it will give you to enhance your future career with the organisation.

Heartbeat: Messages of positivity for new mums

Girls representing 52nd Birmingham Guides and Brownies popped into our maternity unit recently to drop off ‘messages of positivity’ for new mums and maternity staff.

Leader, Katherine Aguirre explained: “As part of the celebrations for Save the Children’s centenary marked this year, the 100 Challenge is an opportunity to take part in themed activities around ‘100’, and we are rising to the challenge by delivering 100 little wooden hearts that the girls have individually decorated and wrapped in cellophane with personal messages.

“We chose City Hospital for our Save the Children Challenge because we wanted to spread our joy to patients and staff, being in hospital is always a mix of emotions, from tough times to really joyous times, so we just wanted to put a smile on people’s faces.”

“The girls had a wonderful time meeting brand new beautiful babies and spreading their joy about Girl Guiding and Save the Children’s 100 year anniversary.”

All new Unity devices successfully delivered and deployed

As of Monday 2 September all 396 Unity devices (LoWs, WoWs, CoWs) that were ordered have been delivered and deployed ready for go-live.

We are currently in the bedding-in phase where change requests are being processed. Most of these are small changes to suit the evolving requirements of different teams and locations.

The focus has now shifted to ensuring that all of the devices are working well ahead of go-live. If anyone has a device that is no longer functioning, for any reason, please call the IT helpdesk on ext. 4050 immediately and someone will be sent out to fix or replace the device.

If you don’t think that you have received all the devices you requested and/or you need more in place before go-live, please contact Stuart McGeagh (stuart.mcgeagh@nhs.net) or Paul Canvin (paul.canvin@nhs.net) as soon as possible.

If something has not been delivered then this will be rectified. If something additional is required then a change request will be raised on your behalf.

Support the Your Trust Charity bike ride

A total of 36 colleagues and their friends are tackling the 185 miles Hull to Wells By the Sea bike route between 5 – 8 September all to help raise funds for Your Trust Charity.

More specifically, they are raising money to support patients recently diagnosed with cancer and starting their chemotherapy journey. As a patient starts chemotherapy they are given a ‘Sally Sunshine pack’ which contains items such as puzzle books, a patient journal, a thermometer, lavender oil, sweets, non-fragranced wet-wipes, shampoo and tissues to help them along their treatment journey. But without charitable funds, this would not be possible.

If you wish to support this cause, you can donate by clicking the link below.

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/SWBNHSCycleGroup2019

Heartbeat: Mandy Healy recognised in Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Awards

Hard work and determination has seen Maternity Support Worker, Mandy Healy recognised at the apprenticeship awards.

Mandy was runner up for the Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Award. Her recognition meant she got to visit parliament where she met the Minister of Skills to discuss with others how they felt about apprenticeships, how they could be improved and how to raise the profile of the apprenticeship scheme.

Mandy said: “When I came as a domestic, I loved my job but I knew there was more that I could offer.”

At first it wasn’t easy to gain the training she wanted, her requests were declined, but undeterred she took the initiative to approach Tony Lewis, suggesting that she could undertake the training in her own time. Her request was granted and soon she had started her Health and Social Care level 2 apprenticeship. She quickly moved on to Health and Social Care level 3 and kept on going with her development.

Mandy has been on the apprenticeship scheme since 2016 gaining various qualifications including her Functional Skills level 1 and 2. “I just thought, I want to learn the skills that are going to make me good at my job” she said.

Mandy has been nominated for a number of awards and with the support and encouragement of the Learning and Development team, she has been pushed to go further with her development. All of this has been made possible through her PDR, in which she has consistently scored highly, prompting the Learning and Development team to ask her to really consider where she would like her career to go. She commented: “I’m so lucky, but it’s also because of my PDR. I’ve always told them that I wanted training and they’ve always taken it on board”.

Being nominated and chosen as runner up for the Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Award meant Mandy also got to visit parliament where she met the Minister of Skills to discuss with others how they felt about apprenticeships, how they could be improved and how to raise the profile of the apprenticeship scheme.

Mandy is grateful for the opportunities that have opened up to her through the pursuit of her professional development and is excited about where it will take her next.  She is also keen to highlight the support and development opportunities that are available and is enthusiastic about colleagues accessing those resources. Mandy said: “People think apprenticeships are just for school-leavers, but it doesn’t matter about age, the Trust will give you the training if you keep going at it”.