Heartbeat March 2020

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Gynaecology celebrates first birthday! WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH Our Sandwell based gynaecology team celebrated their first birthday in February. The celebration represented a year since the department moved from Alpha Suite to clinic 6A which is a part of the main outpatients’ area at Sandwell Hospital. The gynaecology unit specialise is addressing, correcting and easing any gynaecological issues our female patients experience. For some of our patient's gynaecological issues can have a catastrophic effect on their daily life. With this in mind, the team help patients to rectify these complex issues. “Thanks to the move we have been able to increase our capacity. It is an exciting time for further growth. We are working hard to modernise one service, in particular, to offer a one-stop clinical experience for women with postmenopausal bleeding,” said Tiffany Jones, Sister. In addition, the gynaecology team have also been able to commit to achieving faster treatment times for women that receive an endometrial (womb lining) cancer diagnosis. Charlotte Gordan, HCA in gynaecology kindly made the first birthday cake The special birthday event was attended by colleagues who work within gynaecology, including Dr Abha Sinha, Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician, CD. Dr Sinha believes the success of the move has been down to all the colleagues who work within the team. Tiffany has proven instrumental to the department, as have her core team made up of Vanessa Wright, Sara Greenaway, Jean Whitehouse, Tracey Law, Jenny Oliver, Charlotte Gordon, Donna Francis, Julie Hill and Cynthia Daly. The team also benefits from being supported in times of pressure by Paula Bryan and her team from gynaecology outpatients’ in the Birmingham Treatment Centre. She said, “I have to express my huge admiration for Tiffany for her leadership skills, as well as her clinical and interpersonal skills in leading an amazing team. She has worked incredibly hard over the past 12 months to get the unit staffed with the best HCA team. She’s also trained and supported them to develop into band 3-4 roles.” Raffaela Goodby, Director of People and Organisation Development has been a patient and has participated in multiple board visits to the department. A real advocate of the team and the work they do, she said, “Not many patients can say that their gynaecology visits are like visiting a spa. I can say that my experience as a patient and as a colleague has been zen from start to finish! “Tiffany and the team calmly and simply explain very intimate procedures and give you assurance and honesty at a very worrying time. When I had treatment last year to have pre-cancerous cells removed, the team explained what was happening and I didn’t feel embarrassed or ill at ease once. That’s an achievement considering the intimacy of the situation." She added, “I want to offer my thanks to the team for all they do for patients, and for having that person-centred approach I know they offer to each patient. Thank you for being so open about women’s reproductive health, for openly talking about the importance of smear tests, and for looking after the gynaecological health of Sandwell and West Birmingham with such composure.” Baby Gibson first to benefit from patient generosity Two-day-old, Kade Gibson was keen to show off his latest knitwear thanks to the kindness of former patient, Julita Dirsaite. Julita was in our maternity department two and a half years ago and after the fantastic care she received whilst at the Trust, she made the decision she wanted to give back to the nurses and midwives at the hospital. Being an enthusiastic knitter and the drive to help others, Julita decided she wanted to knit clothes for one of our most vulnerable group of patients and those just starting out in life, premature babies. Items included tiny knitted converse boots, ballerina shoes, flower blankets and bonnets. As well as knitting for the little babies, she also knitted a few accessories for our midwives including pen pots to store stationary as Baby Kady Gibson shows off his new knitted gear gifts for their continued hard work in the department. Claire Cushing, M2 Ward Manager is one of many colleagues to get a gift from Julita and believes the donations from her will really help our patients. She said: “We were overwhelmed with the donations from Julita and very much appreciate them all in our department. All the clothes, booties and blankets that have been knitted will really benefit the babies in maternity and their parents.” Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager at Your Trust Charity facilitated the knitwear for maternity and echoes Claire’s views. She said: “Unfortunately we have many mums who struggle to get hold of clothing for their premature babies, but by having our community support us in making such beautiful gifts and giving their time allows us to support our patients in the very early days. Julita’s gifts tie in perfectly with it being Year of the Nurse and Midwife 2020, and showing how appreciated they are.” Angela Jane Gibson, mum of Kade Gibson was thankful for the donation and said, “It was really kind of the charity and hospital to provide Kade with a set of knitwear and booties when he was born.” She added: “I must say a massive thank you to both as well as a special thanks to Julita for knitting them.” 26
Safer Sleep Week to help prevent unexpected deaths of little ones Early March marked Safer Sleep Week an annual campaign spearheaded by The Lullaby Trust, whose vision is to reduce and prevent where possible the unexpected deaths of babies and young children. The Lullaby Trust actively fund research into both the causes and prevention of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). They also provide support to parents and engage with medical professionals to help promote child health. With approximately 700,000 babies born every year in the UK, the focus of this year’s campaign was to provide practical tips to help new parents survive sleep deprivation. The Safer Sleep Week campaign was enthusiastically embraced by our community maternity team. The team shared tips to equip parents with the knowledge to establish safe sleep routines. This included having a Moses basket set up to demonstrate both the correct and incorrect way to put a baby to sleep. The team were also on hand to answer any Michelle Defreitas from the community midwives team held sessions with new parents during Safer Sleep Week questions and, they had a display of posters and leaflets available too. Speaking to Heartbeat, Dionne Mullings, Community Team Manager said, “We’re passionate supporters of Safer Sleep Week. We aimed to reach all of our new parents with some key messages to help to reduce the risk of SIDS occurring. Sleep deprivation can WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH be hard for new parents to adjust to, but we’re here to help. We have a vast array of experience on the team and, between us we wanted to reinforce the message that it’s important to establish safer sleep routines early on.” Safer sleeping – things you can do • Always place your baby on their back to sleep • Keep your baby smoke free during pregnancy and after birth • Breastfeed your baby • Place your baby to sleep in a separate cot or Moses basket in the same room as you for the first six months • Use a firm, flat, waterproof mattress in good condition. Did you know that you can download treatment-specific patient information leaflets from the EIDO Healthcare website for FREE? EIDO has hundreds of patient leaflets for different procedures that are being carried out across the Trust. They are available in an easy-to-read format and in different languages. Patient information for hundreds of procedures carried out across the Trust can be downloaded for free and passed on to patients to help them better understand the procedure they may be undergoing. Many of these are available in different languages and formats and help patients to give informed consent. Visit Connect Clinical Systems EIDO PT Leaflets. For more information, please contact Communications Team on ext.5303 or email swbh.comms@nhs.net 27
Page 1 and 2: March 2020 Sandwell and West Birmin
Page 3 and 4: Our Trust’s plan to manage the pa
Page 5 and 6: Managing your health and wellbeing
Page 7 and 8: It’s not all about hospitals: Rea
Page 9 and 10: Supporting colleagues - swabbing fo
Page 11 and 12: Celebrating our stars of the week S
Page 13 and 14: GEMS - our valuable pieces of learn
Page 15 and 16: Milestone merger becomes reality as
Page 17 and 18: Mental health act administrator joi
Page 19 and 20: Year of the Nurse and Midwife Each
Page 21 and 22: Conference shares methods to improv
Page 23 and 24: Poo is no longer a taboo thanks to
Page 25: Inside the mortuary - taking care o
Page 29 and 30: This month we say hello to Liam Ken
Page 31 and 32: Toby writes about… management by

Heartbeat March 2020

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?