Heartbeat: Say hello to me – identifying new starters

August 22, 2019

A new initiative in the emergency department aims to combat new starters feeling isolated and welcome them to the team.

After being made aware that a number of new colleagues were feeling isolated during the first days and weeks at our Trust, ED Matron Annabel Bottrill and her team decided to come up with a scheme to help discreetly identify those who may need some help to feel welcome. The “Say Hello to Me” initiative was created, a system of coloured dots which are added to name badges.

The dots let colleagues know that the member of staff is new and encourages them to take extra time to engage and offer support if needed. Each coloured dot represents a different amount of time; pink means that they have never worked in NHS before, maybe because they are newly qualified or have joined from abroad, orange means that someone is new to the department but has previously worked for the NHS, green signals that they have worked in the department for a year or more and finally, light blue shows that the person is bank, agency or locum staff.

Prior to this system being introduced new starters were simply introduced during handovers which meant that they saw everyone as a large team and during various shifts. The dots allow easy identification of any colleagues that are new, which pulls the team together and builds a more collaborative team.

Annabel said “This has helped build the team and ensures that all new colleagues are recognised which helps support them. It has helped the new starters by making them feel identified and part of a team. We would like to develop this further with silicone surrounds for name badges and potentially roll it out across the whole trust.”