News@NLaG

Meet the team
Picture box
Breast care survivorship team
Nicola Dixon and Sue Cooper, breast
care clinical nurse specialists
Four ladies who met on the neonatal intensive care unit at Scunthorpe
hospital have raised a whopping £3,000 for the unit.
Mums Christina, Annabel , Victoria and Katie raised the cash by holding a
fundraising day. Sarah Judd, NICU manager, said the funds would be used to
revamp one of the rooms on the ward. They are hoping to replace the floor as
well as redecorate.
Pictured from left: Judith Braithwaite, advanced healthcare assistant, Christina
Smeaton with baby Layla, Georgina Chrost, local newborn hearing screening
manager, Annabel Donaldson with baby Aoife, Victoria Scott with baby Henry,
Katie Taylor with baby Erin and Sarah Judd ward manager for NICU.
Staff at the Assisted Living Centre at Grimsby hospital welcomed the
deputy leader of the council recently. Councillor Jane Hyldon-King who
is the portfolio holder for health, wellbeing and adult social care at
North East Lincolnshire Council visited. She chatted to staff about how
the centre works, saw some of the daily aids for living and toured the
demonstration areas as well as hearing about the different types of
assistance offered to patients. She said: “I was very impressed with the
centre and the fact that we have something like this that people can
access in the community.” She is pictured with occupational therapist
Emma Scargall.
Two clinical nurse specialists at the
Trust are now offering a unique service
to breast cancer patients.
Sue Cooper and Nicola Dixon have set
up what they believe to be the only
team in the country offering local men
and women additional support after
their initial treatment, tailored to each
individual patient’s needs.
Their aim is to improve the quality of
follow-up services for patients and
they’ll be seeing people after their year
one mammogram.
Patients are referred to the service by
their consultant and at the initial clinic
appointment they will be assessed and
have an individual care plan developed
and agreed with the breast care nurse.
The care plan will include detailed
information about signs and symptoms
to be aware of; long-term side effects of
treatments, how to contact the breast
care survivorship team should they have
any worries or concerns, healthy lifestyle
advice and information about local
health and wellbeing sessions. A copy of
the care plan will be given to the patient
and their GP.
Nicola said: “We are their single point of
contact once they’ve finished treatment
and had their year one mammogram for
the next four years. It’s a complete shift
in how breast cancer follow-up care is
managed.
“We’ve done a lot of research and
spoken with other trusts and as far
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Together
we care, we respect, we deliver
as we can tell we are the only area in
the country to offer a breast specific
follow-up and survivorship programme
with designated breast care survivorship
clinical nurse specialists. Usually the
follow-up and survivorship workload
is an additional duty for breast care
nurses.
In preparing the programme the duo
have spoken to local breast cancer
survivors about what they would have
liked to have had on offer while they
were going through their follow-up
treatment.
Sue added: “Breast cancer patients
get a lot of support after their initial
diagnosis and it can sometimes be quite
overwhelming with all the information
they are given, but after they have
completed their initial treatment and
their hospital appointments reduce it
can feel quite frightening.
“We’ll be focusing on their recovery
and overall health and wellbeing by
identifying their individual needs which
may include social, psychological or
sexual concerns.
“We’ll be providing psychological
support and offering information and
advice in addition to signposting to
other health professionals and services,
with the ultimate aim to ensure patients
feel supported and equipped to selfmanage
their own future health and
wellbeing.”
It’s particularly good news for
Scunthorpe patients who would usually
have to travel to Grimsby for some of
their follow up clinic appointments
as Sue and Nicola will be offering
appointments in Scunthorpe too.
The introduction of the team will also
free up consultant and breast care
clinical nurse specialist time, as they’ll
be taking over follow-up appointments,
allowing their colleagues to spend
more time supporting newly diagnosed
patients.
As part of the programme Nicola and
Sue have also linked in with local leisure
centres to offer breast cancer only
exercise programmes and are working
with occupational therapists and
physiotherapists at the Trust to develop
exercise programmes specifically
for breast cancer patients. During
September and October they organised
two exercise taster days for local people
who have had treatment for breast
cancer at the local leisure centres in
Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
Sue said “The aim is to provide an
exclusive, supported and fun event
tailored purely for breast cancer patients
to introduce them to a wide range of
exercises in the hope that they will be
inspired to take up physical activity to
improve their overall health and wellbeing
following their treatment.”
To find out more about the team contact Sue
or Nicky on (01472) 874111 extension 2397.
Mr Silas Gimba, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, pictured at
the Values in Health and Social Care Leadership Conference in Sheffield.
He attended with advanced nurse practitioner/nurse colposcopist Lynda
farrow-Browne as they presented a poster on ‘The NHS Paperless Vision and
Challenges of Clinician Engagement and Leadership’. Lynda said: “The day
was full, varied and extremely interesting and I’m immensely proud to have
been a very small part of the data collection required to complete the article.”
Get in touch
Are you organising a cheque
presentation on your ward/
department? Then get in touch with
the communications team on (01724)
387739 and let us know so we can pop
along with our camera.
Staff took time out of their busy schedules to whip up funds in aid of Macmillan
by putting their baking skills to the test. Each year the charity encourages people
to get together and hold a coffee morning to raise funds for cancer support.
Staff in the research and development team, pictured, raised £230 with their
selection of tasty treats. Meanwhile staff at Scawby House raised £102.33 from
their cake sale and special Macmillan cake which they put up as a raffle prize.
Pictured are Sandra Pearson and Jo Hill, both research nurses, data coordinator
Dawn Jones and business and administration apprentice Bryany Bond.
With more than 70 years clocked up between them medical secretaries
Janice Marshall (left) and Fay Fixter (right) have retired from the Trust. They
are pictured with consultant ophthalmologist Mr Q K Ali at their retirement
party. Janice started work at Scunthorpe hospital in 1970 and Fay took up
her first post 26 years ago.
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