Skip to content Skip to main menu Skip to utility menu

International year of the nurse and the midwife: Helen Taylor

November 2, 2020

This year marks International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, a campaign by the World Health Organisation in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale.

Nurses and midwives play a vital role in providing health services in our workplace. They devote their lives to caring for mothers and children; giving lifesaving immunisations and health advice; looking after older people and generally meeting everyday essential health needs. They are often the first and only point of care in their communities. Throughout the year we will be highlighting some of our nurses, HCAs and midwives who are making a difference to our patients.

Today we feature Helen Taylor, Lead Nurse for the Homeless Patient Pathway Team.

Helen has worked for the Trust in her role as Lead Nurse for the Homeless Pathway Team for 7 years.

Helen plays a pivotal role in leading the Homeless Patient Pathway team when working with complex and vulnerable adults that are homeless with drug and alcohol dependencies, alongside physical and mental health conditions.

The team work to improve the experience of our homeless patients by providing much needed interventions such as support securing accommodation, advice and signposting, GP registrations, food, clothing, toiletries, and packages of care to ensure safer and more dignified discharges.

In 2019, of the 650 patients referred to the service, 94 per cent received interventions from the HPP team reducing the potential rough sleeping rate by successfully housing patients into new accommodation or supporting to return to their original accommodation, with others being signposted to relevant agencies and provided with essential food and clothing packages. In doing this the team have saved the trust 480 bed days equating to £192,000.

Helen was also nominated as one of our Trust NHS heroes in August 2019, she was also shortlisted along with her team for two awards at the 2019 Star Awards – Clinical Team of the Year (adults) and the Award for Equality and Diversity Champion.