This year’s Winner was Sinead Greener, Lead clinical pharmacist and pharmacy lead for ‘What Matters to You’. Congratulations!
We had two nursing Finalists for this award:
Katie Martin
Good leadership is one of the most influential factors in shaping organisational / team culture and that’s been recognised in this deputy lead nurse’s role at NECTAR – North East & Cumbria Transport and Retrieval team – on a day-to-day basis.
As an individual Katie is not only a mentor to new trainees joining the team but actively goes out of her way to ensure this crucial service is a positive, supportive environment to work in.
She is the brain behind the NECTAR Assist team at The Great North Children’s Hospital, supporting wards with higher acuity high-dependency unit level patients who aren’t unwell enough to require an intensive care admission. This has not only helped staff but countless families and unwell children from across the region.
Within the team, Katie has also set up ‘What Matters to You’ days which are having a real impact. “Katie’s positive attitude is making Newcastle Hospitals a place where people want to come to work and remain employed, specifically within the NECTAR team.”
Exton Sanchez and Lisa Hodgson
Described as showing remarkable leadership skills, these senior nurses went over and above their job descriptions during the build-up and opening of the new Day Treatment Centre on the Freeman Hospital site.
On top of the normal issues you would expect; the pair sourced work placements for staff joining the centre – building and maintaining working relationships with many other departments – which allowed them to gain new skills before it was open and also ensured the correct equipment was ordered and available for the team to carry out high quality patient care.
Together they also encourage an open-door policy, creating an environment where staff feel valued, listened to and comfortable in raising any issues or concerns they may have – both in their working and personal lives.
Activities such as ‘star of the month’ have also been implemented to improve and maintain staff morale where anyone can recognise colleagues for outstanding work in the department.
To sum up this pair their nomination read: “Lisa and Exton are both compassionate and enthusiastic individuals and this filters into the whole team – by maintaining high staff morale, the patient experience becomes more positive as people are happy in their work.”
