Team and Employee of the Month – August 2018

Every month we normally announce one team as the winner of our Brilliant Bradford Team of the Month award.

This month, however, is a little different as three teams – who are all behind one pioneering project – have taken the honours.

Ward 29, our Infection Control team, and Westbourne Green are the deserved winners for August after impressive work delivering our new Hydration Project to patients and families.

As part of our ongoing drive to reduce infection, our Infection Control team has worked with staff from Ward 29 and the Westbourne Green site to introduce drink stations and look at different ways of encouraging patients – and their families – to drink more.

Drinking more fluids can have a major impact on elderly patients in particular, and reduce confusion, tiredness, constipation, and e-coli bloodstream and urinary tract infections among many other conditions.

Chief Nurse Karen Dawber and Nurse Consultant Infection Control Claire Chadwick nominated the three teams for the award.

Karen said: “Ward 29 and Westbourne Green have introduced drinking stations and looked at ways of encouraging different ways of both measuring and encouraging fluids.

“The team on Ward 29 have even purchased traditional cups and saucers to add a little quirkiness into the project!

“Early results are encouraging with patients drinking more and the recording of drinks being more accurate.

“Staff are also using a QI methodology and are assessing the results against a baseline of infection indicators.”

Staff Nurse Emily Batt helped lead the project on Ward 29 with Sister Jacqui Smith.

She said: “We asked patients what they would like to drink and have made something different every week. Patients have been able to have fruit juice and cordial.

“We also put hydration stations throughout the ward and put a sign up at the entrance telling families that they could have a drink to make them feel valued too.”

Our Senior Infection and Prevention Control Nurse, Robina Fayyaz, said staff had also been giving out posters to patients and families to help them assess their hydration levels according to the colour of their urine.

They have all been absolutely amazing,” Robina added.”We are now looking at introducing hot drinks and working with our Dietetics team too.

And Sister Adeline Toldeo from Westbourne Green said the award had given her team “a well-deserved boost”.

She said: “We’ve worked hard and our patients are really getting on board with the initiative by actively using the urine chart to check how hydrated they are. It’s really made a difference and we’ve found patients are getting fewer urinary tract infections as a result.”

Congratulations to all three teams!

The winner of August’s Brilliant Bradford Employee of the Month award regularly goes ‘above and beyond’ for our patients.

August 2018’s award winner is David Sado, the Trust’s Informatics PACS Manager – PACS is Radiology’s Picture Archiving and Communications’ System.

David’s nomination was made jointly by Principal Superintendent Radiographer, Leah Richardson and Administration Manager, Lindsay Bell, who are based at our Pennine Breast Screening Unit at St Luke’s Hospital.

They said that David is “literally the glue holding the system together” as he is currently covering his own role and also the separate job of acting breast PACS manager while the team wait for this  vacant role to be filled.

Leah and Lindsay explained: “We rely on the breast PACS system to provide live imaging for reporting in breast cancer one-stop clinics, screening recall clinics, cold mammography reporting and multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meetings. Any interruption in service has a detrimental effect on patients.

“David is always available and often arrives early and works late to ensure the smooth running of our breast clinics. He deals with challenging situations professionally and he always has time, or makes time, from somewhere to help us.

“David also ensures we are able to provide an efficient, quality service, particularly in clinics where women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. He does all this with a smile but what really comes across is his passion to get things right for our patients. IT is something that for many sits in the background and the support is expected, however without this support our service would come to a standstill.”

Taking David by complete surprise when they popped into his office on level one of Bradford Royal Infirmary to present him with his award-winning certificate were Director of HR, Pat Campbell, and Director of Informatics, Cindy Fedell, who were accompanied by Deputy Head of Informatics, Ian Scott, and IT Systems Support Manager, Carl Hanson.

David, who has worked at the Trust for five years, said: “I don’t know what to say. I am completely flabbergasted. In my work, I always try and put myself in the patient’s shoes as I don’t want their treatment to be delayed. I do what I do because I put our patients first. Thank you to Leah and Lindsay for putting me forward – I feel very honoured as it is nice to have your work recognised like this.”

Huge congratulations to David!