Monthly archives: October 2023
October is Speak Up Month
As you may be aware October is Speak Up Month. Freedom to Speak Up is for everyone who works here.
Speaking up enhances all our working lives and improves the quality and safety of care. Listening and acting upon matters raised means that Freedom to Speak Up will help us be a great place to work.
Speak Up Month in October is an opportunity to raise awareness of how much we value speaking up in our organisation. We see speaking up as fundamental to how we work, and we want to be part of making speaking up business as usual across SWB.
To find out more about how to speak up at SWB and our guardians, please click here.
Meet our guardians in your ward or area: Our Guardians will be visiting different parts of the Trust on the following dates:
- Thursday 19 October, City
- Friday 20 October, the Lyng and Leasowes
- Monday 23 October, Sandwell
- Thursday 26 October, City
- Friday 27 October, Sandwell
- Monday 30 October, City
Congratulations to all our winners at this year’s Star Awards!
Last Friday we held our 2023 Star Awards where a total of 13 awards were handed out to both clinical and non-clinical colleagues across SWB.
Our awards ceremony, which was held at Aston Villa Football Club, aims to recognise the hard work and dedication of our colleagues and volunteers, both on the frontlines and our supporting services.
Throughout this week, we will be celebrating all our award winners from the annual awards.
Today we feature:
Rising Star Award – Emma Bessant: Emma began working at SWB as a domestic, before progressing to become to a band 7 sister over the course of a few years. She has recently taken over as senior sister on a struggling ward, bringing staff together with improved standards and morale and has improved the ward for colleagues and patients. Emma is described as always have a smile on her face, which can brighten up anyone’s shift. She is well respected and leads perfectly by example, the impact she has had in such a short amount of time is immeasurable.
Volunteer of the Year – Brian Guest: Brian has consistently supported our volunteer service, despite having a medical condition. He continually offers to go above and beyond to support with projects or kindly offers to take the lead. Brian has been working with our library service on the roll out of the ‘borrow box’ scheme – which allows patients to use iPads to read. Brian trained other volunteers in using the app to enable them to go onto the wards to support patients. Brian freely gives his time and knowledge and sees volunteering as his way of giving back to the trust and saying thank you for the care his wife received during some spent-on Sandwell ITU.
Learner of the Year – David Cartwright: David has dedicated his last three years completing the scientist training programme specialising in respiratory, which he completed in September 2023. David spent his first year rotating between specialisms completing competencies and organised himself extremely well, considering the impact of COVID-19. His second and third years were spent within respiratory physiology, building his clinical knowledge and skills across a broad range of diagnostic tests. During this time, he participated in several MDT’s, building working relationships across respiratory. He always throws himself into teaching fellow colleagues and demonstrates excellent teaching skills both on a one to one and within a group setting. David has been completely committed to ensuring his academic work excels and performed continuously at a high standard while completing his university modules, including the completion of an audit. He has also presented at an annual conference for the Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology.
Partnerships with the Community Award – Jayne Salter-Scott and the Youth Forum and Angela Arnold:
Jayne has been instrumental in gaining traction to implement and gain membership of SWB Youth Forum, offering the young people who attend an approachable, friendly space and encouraging them to be participants in various activities each month. She encourages them to set their own agenda and even lead meetings. The young people who attend each month have shown great commitment to the Trust by attending monthly for three hours each time and are assisting us to think about how young people, inclusive of those with disabilities, experience our services. They are insightful and brave, never shying away from telling us how it is in a respectful and compassionate manner. The success of the forum has led to organisations in the region approaching us to establish how we have created such enthusiasm for the Youth Forum; this is testament to the Youth Forum members’ ambition to make a difference and Jayne’s ability to walk alongside them as they co-design a forum they want to be part of.
Angela has single-handedly set up a substance misuse service within maternity services for SWB women, linking in with other services both internal and external to streamline care. Angela will case load these women, going above and beyond to help them maintain engagement with all services to improve outcomes for the women and babies. She accompanies them to antenatal clinic appointments for support, as well as delivering a training session to staff each month regarding substance misuse and pregnancy. Angela is women focused and so empowering to some of our most vulnerable women and she goes about it with no recognition for her achievements. She is always there to offer advice, support and management planning.
Pharmacy drug safety notices
We have two drug safety notices from our pharmacy department which clinical colleagues should be aware of.
We currently have limited supplies of permethrin 5 per cent cream and sodium chloride 0.9 per cent 100 ml bags have now been withdrawn from the UK.
Please see information sheets below for further advice and alternatives:
For more information please contact the pharmacy department on ext. 5263/3783.
Maintenance affecting the HIE Portal: 17 October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm
Please be aware that essential IT maintenance will be taking place on Tuesday 17 October, affecting the HIE Portal. The work is being carried out by our support vendor Cerner and is scheduled to begin at 6.30pm for approximately one hour and should be completed after 7.30pm.
During this time Unity will remain fully available. However, the HIE Portal that displays Unity and GP information will be unavailable for up to one hour from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. Please be assured GPs have alternate means to view this information via the ICE system. Trust clinicians only use HIE for supplementary GP information on occasions.
The activity will be closely monitored by our Cerner and our IT support teams.
As always, should you have any further queries then please do contact the IT Service Desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers or via service desk live chat.
Star Awards 2023: Our winners!
We would like to say a huge congratulations to all winners, and nominees from last week’s Star Awards. This year we had more nominations than ever before, and the competition was tough.
Be sure to check out the winners below:
Here’s a full list of our 2023 winners:
- Rising Star – Emma Bessant
- Volunteer of the Year – Brian Guest
- Partnerships with the community – Angela Arnold, Jayne Salter Scott and Youth Space
- Learner of the Year – David Cartwright
- EDI Award – Janice Nelson
- Distinguished Service Award – Verna White
- Sustainability Award – Cardiac Cath Lab
- Prize for Transformation and Research – Breast Imaging, Training and Development Team
- Patient Safety Award – Emily Hobbs and Zeena Tudor
- Patient’s Choice Award – Ophthalmology Ward
- Non-Clinical Team of the Year – Chaplaincy
- Clinical Team of the Year – Cancer Hotline
- Employee of the Year – Dr Huma Naqvi
Loop support drop in clinic at City
Are you having trouble with your Loop App? Struggling to log in or can’t see your shifts? We are hosting a Loop drop in clinic on Monday 16 October, 10am – 2pm at the BTC, City, so pop along and they will ‘Get you in the Loop’.
Note: The room at the BTC has not been confirmed so upon arrival please ask at reception for the exact location of the drop in session.
For everything Loop, please see our dedicated Connect pages.
The Loop helpdesk is open Monday-Friday, 9am-3pm and can be contacted by calling ext. 3033.
October is Speak Up Month
As you may be aware October is Speak Up Month. Freedom to Speak Up is for everyone who works here.
Speaking up enhances all our working lives and improves the quality and safety of care. Listening and acting upon matters raised means that Freedom to Speak Up will help us be a great place to work.
Speak Up Month in October is an opportunity to raise awareness of how much we value speaking up in our organisation. We see speaking up as fundamental to how we work, and we want to be part of making speaking up business as usual across SWB.
Be sure to check out this short video featuring Jennifer Caradine, advanced physiotherapist talking about why she is so passionate about being a freedom to speak up guardian.
To find out more about how to speak up at SWB and our guardians, please click here.
Wear it Green on 18 October: The National Guardians Office are encouraging everyone to take part in wear it green on Wednesday 18 October to show their visible support for Freedom to Speak Up. You can get involved with Speak Up Month across social media using the hashtag #BreakingFTSUBarriers
Find out more from www.nationalguardian.org.uk.
Meet our guardians in your ward or area: Our Guardians will be visiting different parts of the Trust on the following dates:
- Thursday 12 October, Sandwell and Tipton
- Friday 13 October, Rowley
- Thursday 19 October, City
- Friday 20 October, the Lyng and Leasowes
- Monday 23 October, Sandwell
- Thursday 26 October, City
- Friday 27 October, Sandwell
- Monday 30 October, City
New trauma informed care E learning programme now available
NHS England’s elearning for healthcare and mental health team have worked together to develop a new elearning programme about trauma informed care.
The programme, which is aimed at frontline health and care professionals, emergency services colleagues, violence reduction units and education staff, consists of five modules:
- Human development and responses to threat
- What do we mean by trauma?
- Basic awareness, concepts and challenges
- Public health and prevention, personal capacity
- Making trauma informed approaches part of healthcare
On completion of the programme learners will have a greater understanding of trauma and its impact on the lives of everyone who encounters services, including those who work within it. It will help learners to recognise and sensitively respond to people who have experienced trauma.
For more information and to access the resource, please visit the Trauma Informed Care programme page.
Join us for Restart a Heart Day in the BTC: 16 October
With 80 per cent of cardiac arrests happening in the home, it is vital that as many people as possible learn this lifesaving skill – it may be a loved one who suffers a cardiac arrest – and it’s crucial to begin CPR and defibrillation as soon as possible to help their chances of survival.
The deteriorating patient and resuscitation team have organised a Restart a Heart event that aims to give the local community these lifesaving skills to increase survival rates in the area.
Come and join us for a day of fun including a ‘CPRathon’, a CPR challenge on our high-tech manikins, music, and much more!
The event will be held in the entrance of the Birmingham Treatment Centre on Monday 16 October from 9am – 3pm.
For more information, please contact the deteriorating patient and resuscitation team.
Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 6 October
October is Black History Month – an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the invaluable contributions of black people to society and to the NHS. It also serves as an opportunity to inspire and empower future generations.
We are privileged to work in one of the most diverse communities in the country. And I am proud that much of our SWB family comes from those communities that we serve.
I am often out and about meeting and talking to colleagues across the organisation and I can honestly say our diversity is our strength and we should remember and celebrate that. Only by understanding and learning about and from each other can we truly become the workplace where colleagues are happy and productive.
Last week I was delighted to see over 300 colleagues gather at Sandwell to take part in the National Inclusion Week celebrations. Throughout the week, acute medicine also hosted an array of activities including specific days focused on religion, pride, mental health and cultural awareness.
We all have a part to play in fostering an improved culture – making our organisation fairer, more inclusive and compassionate. Creating a place where colleagues can speak up without fear of repercussion and have a true sense of belonging lies at the heart of our People Plan.
Our staff survey results, Workforce Race Equality Scheme (WRES), Workforce Disability Equality Scheme (WDES) and gender pay gap shows a need for a step change in our approach to equality diversity and inclusion in order bring a shift in mindset and behaviour.
I am pleased that as part of our EDI plan we have already implemented some key programmes of work including:
- Launch of our new ARC Leadership Development Programme focusing on compassionate and inclusive leadership and will be instrumental in creating the foundation required to support behavioural change.
- An Inclusive Resourcing and Talent Management Group has been established to ensure inclusion is at the heart of our succession planning and talent management programmes with a view to address underrepresentation in senior leadership roles and increase career development opportunities.
- Our values – ambition – respect – compassion are now being embedded in our recruitment and appraisal processes. This creates the structure by which we can recognise great colleagues who live our values, and challenge poor behaviours.
- We have relaunched our Freedom to Speak Up offer to improve reporting and outcomes.
- We have commenced the roll out of a “Just and Learning” principles (known as ‘restorative people practice’) in order to improve the experience of our staff going through HR processes, address over-representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues in these processes, create psychological safety and enable a culture of civility, learning and accountability.
- The Cultural Ambassador Programme continues to support employee relations work across the Trust.
- We have signed up to the Diversity Champions Programme to create a more inclusive workforce for our LGBTQ+ colleagues.
- We have signed up to the RACE Equality Code which provides best practice guidance that will help us to understand, not only what is required of us by our regulators and stakeholders in relation to tackling issues of race equality within SWB, but also how to apply those requirements.
In addition, we are currently rolling out a development programme for staff network leads and sponsors so our networks are able to function more effectively in helping us improve the experience of our colleagues.
Take the opportunity to find out more about the wonderful work we are doing in this space. You can contact Meagan Fernandes or Donna Mighty to find out more about our EDI plan and how you can play your part.
Please also get involved in the various events taking place throughout October to mark Black History Month. On Wednesday 11 October, in partnership with the University of Birmingham and Recognize Black Heritage and Culture, SWB is hosting Staying Power: Unity through Community. Taking place at the Exchange, 3 Centenary Square, from 6.30pm – 8.30pm, the evening will see perspectives from academics, students, and artists from across the West Midlands. Find out more on Connect.
← Older items Newer items →