Monthly archives: April 2020

Mental Health First Aider Volunteers and TRiM practitioner volunteers

The Trust is looking for volunteers to be trained in the coming weeks and months to support each other through the stress and impact of our human response to the Covid 19 pandemic.  Dealing with traumatic events and situations naturally gives rise to feelings of guilt, stress, panic or a reduction in our resilience. This can impact on our health, sleep and relationships at work and at home. The Trust is partnering with ‘March on Stress’ a well known company who have experience supporting individuals dealing with the impact of war and significant events. We are now looking for 3 types of volunteers, from across all professional groups and grades.

1. Volunteers to undertake ‘train the trainer’ sessions during May and June. These people will then train all our front line supervisors in ‘how to have psychologically savvy conversations
2. Mental Health First Aiders – who will undertake half a day’s training (remotely) in May  and will provide more in depth support to colleagues and
3. Volunteers to train as TriM practitioners. This training will take place in June over 2 days (in a socially distanced way) and these practitioners will be required to be released to support colleagues in the coming months and years as we move in to our recovery phase.

Please volunteer your name to Raffaela Goodby, Director of People and OD   r.goodby@nhs.net.

If you are experiencing trauma and need support right now, please use our helpline numbers and visit the Well Being pages on Connect and the My Connect App. There is 24/7 support in place for you and your colleagues.

Heartbeat: From HCA to nursing associate – the sky’s the limit for Jenni Meeson

Within our organisation, there is a strong focus on personal development. With opportunities available to all colleagues, it’s something we’re passionate about. Whether you choose an apprenticeship, external learning or a degree level qualification, there’s something for everyone.

Jenni Meeson has taken advantage of the learning opportunities available at our Trust. Having worked here for 15 years, for the most part, she’s worked as a health care assistant (HCA). That all changed when she decided to take the next step in her career and become a nurse associate apprentice.

She joined the programme almost two years ago and, it has been an invaluable learning experience for Jenni.

The apprenticeship covers all four domains of nursing – adult, children’s, learning disabilities, plus mental health. Jenni has found this hugely informative and, it’s been enhanced by the clinical work placements she’s completed and, offsite learning at the University of Wolverhampton.

Speaking to Heartbeat Jenni explained, “I worked as a HCA in the community for 15 years. Over that time I worked with a lot of different teams and developed transferable skills. That in part, helped me decide to become a nurse associate apprentice. It has given me the chance to build on what I already know and I can now do things I couldn’t do before such as compressions and drug rounds.”

With just five months left of her apprenticeship, Jenni took a moment to reflect on her learning experience. “I complete 30 hours each week for my work placement and a day at university. I’ve had to do assignments, exams and presentations as part of my apprenticeship. Ultimately when I qualify I will gain a foundation degree as a nursing associate. It will be a proud moment.”

She added, “I would encourage anyone interested in becoming a nurse associate to apply. Once you’ve qualified that’s just the beginning of your journey – it’s up to you where you progress to. I feel particularly grateful that the Trust has invested in this apprenticeship. I’m also pleased that when I qualify it will enable me to be a registered practitioner governed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.”

 

Do you need to contact the dementia, delirium and distress team?

The dementia, delirium and distress team (DDD) Team are still here to help support colleagues on the wards during COVID-19. Assessments are still taking place for patients that are experiencing emotional distress or any cognitive impairment. We are still continuing to monitor and support with focus care.

If you need to contact the team please email swbh.DDDgroup@nhs.net.

Please also see team details below:

Stephen Keates:

Trust mobile 07966625103 Ext. 5488

Email: stephen.keates@nhs.net

 

Erica-Jayne Podhorodecki-Castle:

Trust mobile 07870544804 Ext. 5588

Email: e.podhorodecki-castle1@nhs.net

 

David Cobley:

Trust mobile: 07966625109 Ext. 4349

Email: d.cobley@nhs.net

 

Tracy Mansell:

Trust mobile 07971753091 Ext. 5680

Email: t.mansell@nhs.net

Message from pharmacy: Kliniderm foam border dressings stock

In line with guidance from tissue viability, pharmacy will no longer continue to stock Kliniderm foam border dressings of any size. Allevyn dressings will now be stocked as the recommended alternative.

Note: This change only applies to the ACUTE formulary and not to the community formulary.

Please see Kliniderm switch to Allevyn information sheet for details.

For more information please contact the pharmacy department (City ext. 5263, Sandwell ext. 3783).

Drug safety notice: Atracurium, cisatracurium and rocuronium

There are now limited supplies of atracurium injection (all strengths) and cisatracurium injection (all strengths) remaining in the system due to the recent increase in demand. To ensure equitable supply nationally, existing supplies will now be managed centrally working closely with the regional procurement leads and national procurement leads.

Please see atracurium, cisatracurium and rocuronium information sheet for details.

For more information please contact the pharmacy department (City ext. 5263, Sandwell ext. 3783).

Planning to work from home – ensure you log on your machine whilst on Trust site first

Have you been provided with a laptop or desktop computer to take home? If so there is one thing you must do before you take it home – you must log onto it whilst still on Trust premises. This simple step ensures the computer can connect to the SWB network.

Note: If you do not do this login step, the computer will not work from home and you will need to bring it back to site to do this; it is not possible for IT to fix this when you have gone home.

So please remember to log on while on site as soon as you receive the laptop or desktop computer to ensure you can work from home.

For more information please call ext. 4050.

 

 

Do you know how to update your personal contact details on ESR?

You can update your personal details on ESR using employee self-service. Please see instructions below:

• Log into employee self service using your username and password
• Your Portal page will be displayed
• Locate my Personal information portlet
• Click update My personal information
• Check and update your details using this guidance

Further guidance for employees can be found online https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/esr/employee-self-service/

 

Heartbeat: Mental health act administrator joins forces with our Trust

With approximately one in four people in the UK experiencing a mental health problem each year, we continue as an organisation to place a significant focus on this as well as mental wellbeing.

As mental health disorders can have a considerable impact on the health of individuals, we have a duty of care to ensure we are effectively managing patient care and treatment.

Newly appointed Takesha Sam is a mental health act administrator working across our directorates. Takesha is taking the lead on ensuring we are meeting our obligations when dealing with patients with psychological disorders or mental ill-health. This in part involves following the correct procedures and completing accurate paperwork.

Mental health awareness is another aspect of Takesha’s role. This will see her implementing processes to help colleagues better understand the Mental Health Act (MHA) and how to apply it. By managing the administration of the MHA, Takesha is working with individuals and teams to ensure compliance with the MHA, advising on legal requirements relating to detained patients such as the renewal of sections.

Speaking to Heartbeat, Takesha said, “My focus is ensuring colleagues are aware of relevant legislation and processes. This could be anything from processing paperwork when a patient is detained, to ensuring we have the correct consent in place when treating patients. Currently, I’m creating flowcharts that will shortly be circulated to colleagues.”

 

 

Star of the Week – respiratory physiology team

This week’s Star of the Week goes to the respiratory physiology team.

Amina Mohammed and her team have been working very hard to up skill ward nurses to allow them to initiate continuous positive airway pressure for patients with COVID pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Normally this is provided in high dependency unit setting but with the COVID pandemic we had to scale up our facility to provide this treatment for a large number of patients. This meant training a lot more nurses. Amina and her team have stepped up to provide this training.

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COVID-19 Bulletin: Sunday 19 April

This is our once a night bulletin. Please use this bulletin and daily cascade arrangements within care and corporate groups to guide local action. Remember KINDNESS is our watchword in implementing our plans.  It is also our way of keeping in touch with shielders, home workers, part-timers and volunteers.  You are on the team.  Thank you! In the week ahead we will again be opening and closing some beds, as we continue to shift focus into both making sure vulnerable patients at home and the most acutely unwell in hospital get the focused care they need at this time.  Thank you in advance to any employee who again finds themselves moving team. Numbers not statistics: An everyday feature of our bulletin (yesterday’s data..)   Number of our patients confirmed with COVID-19 during the Pandemic Number of positive COVID-19 positive  patients who have been discharged  during the Pandemic Number of patients who have died in our hospitals who tested positive for COVID-19 during the Pandemic Number of patients entered by the Trust into a COVID-19 research trial to date Number of COVID-19 positive patients who are inpatients with us today Number of our staff absent due to ill-health or isolation today 836 (822) 435 (431) 242 (235) 52 (50) 159 (156) 714 (671)  1.   Smiles behind masks – red and blue explained For all of us and the people we look after the changes in care over the last six weeks have been really difficult.  PPE is exhausting to wear.  Changed roles mean confusion and worry.  And we know that patients and their visitors talking to them on video phones find the situation frightening at times and confusing.  Sarb Clare, our deputy medical director, and City-based acute physician made a brief film which captures perfectly the real dilemmas faced by clinical staff right now.  Here it is again. 2.   More claps for more businesses Last Wednesday we showcased the incredible effort made by engineering companies, food producers, and cosmetics firms to help our local NHS.  We continue to make sure that that expertise and largesse is shared with the wider community. If you are working alongside a business that is helping us, get in touch with Ruth Wilkin, our director of communications, so we can consider them for the honours board. 3.   Are we planning for recovery?  Yes, we are Yesterday we included details of Risk Management in this bulletin, as the Trust’s Board scrutinises the plan for the organisation’s Covid-19 response, both the Silver and Gold plan.  A key part of our work in the next few weeks is preparing arrangements to begin again to provide long term conditions and planned care.  When that work restarts will vary. How services are delivered will be informed by welearn from excellence lessons drawn from the recent period.  But the work is being done now to plan two things: 1)    A new normal – changes to standard ways of working in the future 2)    Managing backlog safely – how we address accumulated need waiting our care For the absolute avoidance of doubt, the Trust’s Board will be asked at its May meeting to make a clear public declaration that staffing ratios used during the Covid-19 period will be re-set back to baselines used before the pandemic, when the pandemic ends, if not before. “It is important to be clear and to re-state unambiguously that ‘lessons from Covid-19’ do not include how to worsen staff/patient ratios” – Toby Lewis, Chief Executive 4.   Red and purple – you have not been forgotten! Click here for latest brigade guidance. Over the last week, individuals have been mobilised into our brigades, with colleagues working on PPE, on cleaning, and with our portering and transport teams. There are more colleagues to allocate to brigades, so if you have not heard from us yet, do not worry – you will hear this week.  A number of staff will be working in clinical administration (red), wellbeing work, or other duties (both purple), and the organisation of that will kick into gear in the week ahead.  Everyone shielding will have an opportunity to confirm the work you are doing while you undergo your 12 weeks. 5.   Grief and bereavement support At home or at work, many of us are thinking through loved ones’ lost or deeply unwell.  It is really important to find space and scope to talk and think.  When you are ready.  Our support package is with us for a long time, but do think about whether you need help now. Extended on site counselling Service: Our Occupational Health Service currently offers a free and confidential counselling service. The contact number is ext. 3306. You can ask for a counselling appointment and leave your phone number and a counsellor will be in touch.  A drop in, on site counselling service is available throughout the week and including weekends. Drop in appointments can be accessed via one of the Trust’s accredited counsellors. •Linda, Contact Telephone  07973664125 * Available up until 12 midnight at Weekends. •Tony, Contact Telephone  07970225929 Massive thank you – as ever – to our employee of the year 2019, Richard Burnell, for his work supporting colleagues.  Here’s his latest one-minute film: https://youtu.be/1gE_2LoiTMg   The Connect coronavirus page is continually being updated with the latest news and guidance regarding the virus, please take the time to read and familiarise yourself with the available guidance.