Publish date: 4 April 2024
February's Employee of the Month winner is Sarah Bryan, District Nurses Maghull - South Sefton, nominated by Alison Mitchell for the value of support
"Sarah always goes above and beyond for all patients, especially palliative patients. We recently had a palliative man who deteriorated quickly, he was in a single bed upstairs, and his wife had breast cancer surgery and was unable to climb the stairs to care for him or spend his final days beside him. It seemed impossible to get him downstairs onto a profiling bed, Sarah spent all day looking into ways to ensure this could happen.
Paramedics could not support as they were requesting funding for this as it was a planned transfer, it would have taken too long to apply for funding. Sarah contacted fire service who agreed that they would do this. They then had to contact mountain rescue to obtain correct carrying equipment to make a safe transfer downstairs. This was all coordinated by Sarah, and she made this happen.
This ensured that the patient was downstairs with his wife and family in his final days, he passed away two days later. This also prevented him from getting any pressure damage being on a pressure relieving mattress. This would have come to crisis point if it wasn’t for Sarah’s intervention. patient and family were so grateful and this made such a big impact on this mans end of life care. We are all very proud to have her as part of our team."
February's Team of the Month winner is Lawrence Ward nominated by Chengeto Shoko for the value of continuous improvement
"Lawence ward is a ward in Ashworth. The ward is characterised by an overwhelming feeling of compassion and care and is described as homely and cheerful. I recently spoke to a man who has been in LTS for 12 years to ask about his experiences in hospital. His response was ‘I have had the best years of my life here and I don’t want my care to change’. Unusual comment from someone that most would look at with much empathy, mild sadness when we comprehend how it must be detained for so many years in high security and be in LTS can be catastrophic and traumatic for patients over an extended period but for the staff, it can lead to a sense of hopelessness and compassionate fatigue especially over years and years of little to no progress. It is anxiety provoking and sometimes just plain scary as day in and day out. Staff are managing varying forms and degrees of risk, are often physically assaulted, verbally abused and emotionally, psychologically exhausted.
The last eight months the team have worked tirelessly to do what most of us thought impossible, in the too hard to do box- reduce LTS of three of the most disadvantaged and isolated patients in Ashworth. Despite the workforce challenges and the busyness of a ward, competing demands, the team persevered. The three patients been in LTS for almost 30 years collectively have had LTS discontinued. Knowing the complexities of these individual and professional and personal commitment that is required to achieve these results the only way I can sum this up is that Lawrence have literally moved mountains. It takes grit, kindness and holding the torch of hope even when there seems to be no hope. The team has displayed strong compassionate leadership in driving this and never giving up."