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Living Our Values

We believe that it is important for members of TeamQEH to be recognised when they go above and beyond their duties. If you know somebody working at the Trust who demonstrates our values in their actions please do consider nominating them for one of our 'Living Our Values' awards.

You can complete a digital copy of the nomination form here.

You can read previous winning nominations below.

2024

January

Gemma Mitchell, Housekeeper, Denver Ward

Gemma Mitchell

Gemma is always smiling no matter how busy she is and nothing is ever too much trouble.

She is always welcoming to staff and patients and always goes that extra mile to make sure her patients are happy. She also makes sure the patients’ families are ok and always asks me how I am when I come on to the ward. She always has a listening ear if I need one. I love coming on to Denver ward when I know she is working as I know I will feel very welcome.

I am nominating her for this award so she knows how lovely she is and I want her know how her kindness radiates from her!

We have had a patient on our ward for some time now, it was the patient’s birthday today.

Gemma our housekeeper arranged an afternoon tea for our patient and gathered staff together to sing happy birthday. The patient was so surprised and very pleased.

This is just one fantastic example of how Gemma always goes above and beyond for our patients, staff and ward. Gemma is always kind, caring and supportive in all she does. A true reflection of our Team QEH values.

Gemma, overwhelmed with emotion was very grateful to receive her certificate and bag of goodies in recognition of her amazing achievement and said:
“It means the world. I’m just speechless. I always make sure the patients are comfortable and happy, but this presentation is amazing. Thank you for the recognition.”

2023

January

Amelia Turner, Senior Occupational Therapist

Amelia Turner

Amelia is a wonderful person and a fantastic Occupational Therapist. She lives the values of the Trust each and every day purely due to her friendly, supportive personality and attitude to her work and profession. Although Amelia shows this day-in, day-out, she has just recently gone even further above and beyond to support a young adult through a very difficult admission. The patient has finally been discharged to an appropriate place, and this is in no small part down to Amelia's hard work, attention to detail and never-give-up attitude in succeeding in what she knows is the right outcome for the patient's needs. The patient had suffered a brain injury and has mental health difficulties which meant he needed special cognitive input and assessment. Despite not being able to get engagement from other appropriate services in the treatment and assessment of this patient, Amelia worked closely with our Clinical Psychology colleagues to work with him and get him discharged to an appropriate environment. This included daily check-ins with the patient, creating an orientation board for his room, regularly liaising with his family about his progress, taking him out for functional task practice to assess his cognitive ability out in public and his safety awareness, and accompanying him out so he can have a cigarette safely; keeping him calm and engaged about needing to remain in hospital. Amelia also advised staff as to the patient's unique needs and tried to engage his 1:1 staffing as to what they can do to support him and help him recover. The discharge process was long and fragmented, but Amelia fought through recurrent barriers which led to numerous phone calls, emails, reports (including the need to fight for other services to complete imperative reports) and referrals, in order to get to this positive outcome. I firmly believe that this patient would have become stranded in the hospital or discharged to an inappropriate place had it not been for Amelia's hard work and determination to give wholly holistic care to him at his time of need, and she deserves every recognition for this.

February

Emma Bensley - Senior Health Care Assistant

Emma Bensley

On what the most heartbreaking and devastating day of our lives in losing our precious daughter, Emma was not only there caring for her one last time, Emma was there for us as a family. Our daughter had been cared by Emma and the fantastic Rudham Children's Ward for many years, but as she left us to her journey over the rainbow, Emma cared for her with such care and love and supported us a family in ways that will stay with us forever. Emma stayed with our daughter until we were able to take over as protective parents and treat her as the special little girl she was to us. Emma is a unique individual and is part of a wonderful team on Rudham at the QEH. The whole team on Rudham was there for us as a family that heartbreaking day like they had been many times, Emma's thoughtful actions went the extra mile and will forever stay in our hearts.

March

Winner - Kelly Cloudsley - MDT Coordinator

Kelly Cloudsley MDT Coordinator

Kelly is an Cancer Services MDT co-ordinater. Her Role is a pivotal part of the Cancer Pathway for patients. For the last 3 months, our Team has found ourselves without a Co-ordinater due to staff vacancies. Despite already covering 2 other Cancer Sites, Kelly kindly agreed to Cover our Cancer Site also. Each Cancer site works slightly different with regards to the pathway, Kelly didn't previously know our pathway, however that did not stop her! She has adapted to our ways of working, has gone above and beyond on numerous occasions, and quite frequently worked outside of her comfort zone to support our team and our patients. Kelly has done all of this on top of her own ever growing workload. She has been an excellent support to the Nursing Team, and I feel her hard work and commitment should be recognised.

April

Shan Sebastian - Healthcare Assistant

Shan Sebastian

“I recently had a stay in the QEH on Gayton Ward. I was lucky enough to be in a side room. Although in a bay I’m sure I would have been treated exactly the same. As I lay in my bed, I could hear someone talking to a patient, I was listening to the care and attention that this lady was given as the HCA waged and cleaned her. They were kind, considerate and constantly aware of the patient and checking all was ok with her constantly. They made small talk as they was dressing the patient in her clean pyjamas, telling how lovely and soft they were and how stretchy to make it easier to get them on and off. They asked the patient if she was ok - did she want Shan to stop. Constantly checking they were ok. Shan is a valuable member of the team, always cheerful never moaned and offered help to all staff and patients. Nothing was too much trouble. Shan was always consistent and should be what other staff should be based on. Such a lovely person - a member of staff to be proud of.”

May

Colleen Roper - Healthcare Assistant

Colleen Roper

Recently Colleen was recognised from the specialist palliative team in regard to her attentiveness and caring nature for a patient who was nearing the end of their life. Colleen stayed with the patient in his final moments. "I saw the patient yesterday morning prior to his passing and he looked beautiful. A HCA was sitting with him, he had been washed and tidied up, laying settled on the matress, and accepted mouthcare. I was thinking about how fanctastic this HCA had been and feel they need recognition for doing the right thing depsite certain challenges in recent weeks' I feel Colleen deserves a 'prize nomination' for her outstanding care."

June

Rosie Johnson - Staff Nurse

Rosie Johnson

Rosie is a junior nurse working in the stroke unit. Recently she cared for a young patient who suffered a stroke. During this time he experienced anxiety around what was happening, initially having very minimal communication due to his expressive dsyphasia. Rosie spent long periods ensuring that this man, was given the time to get across his needs and allowed him to express his worries so that she could address them appropriately. Both the patient and wife were hugely grateful for the care and compassion she showed during his short hospital stay. The man felt most at ease when he knew Rosie was on shift, as felt at times that he was being rushed or staff would stop engaging with him due to his speech problem.

July

Sophie Golsby - Assistant Human Resources Business Partner

Sophie Golsby

Unfortunately, we’ve recently had a significant amount of sickness within our team, which resulted in the team being really short staffed over one of the busiest periods for us. Sophie offered her assistance in coming down to the office during lunchtime to allow us all to have a break and time away from our desks. Sophie was on hand to greet visitors and answer the phone for us, which really made a difference to our day. It was so lovely that we were able to stop working and have time away, and that someone was willing to give up their time to make sure that we were looking after ourselves. Sophie is a really kind and selfless person, and this proves it!

August

Carrieanne Davies - Recruitment Project Manager

During a recent bout of Covid within the office, over half of the Recruitment team were off sick, with some of the team able to work from home. Carrieanne was one of the three members of the Recruitment team in the office and she stepped up and coordinated various areas of work in others absence. The team are in the midst of one of the busiest times of the year, but Carrieanne displayed exemplary behaviours in keeping calm, checking in on colleagues, coordinating the workload and juggling her work as well as others, all whilst helping to cover the queries from various visitors to the office and telephone calls. Carrieanne is a shining example of a genuinely caring colleague who exuberated kindness during that time.

September

Linda Carroll - Senior Therapy Assistant

Linda Carroll

Linda Carroll, aka Lovely Lady Linda, is one of the therapy assistants working within the Stroke Team. The patient will always come first, and Linda is always willing to help, even if it isn’t within her specific role. She is kind, caring and compassionate, the patients love her! Linda runs a relaxation group for the patients down on West Raynham, which has gone down a treat, with many patients finding it very useful to find a distraction amongst the loud ward, as well as helping them come to terms with the potentially life changing diagnosis of a stroke. Linda has recently received a glowing plaudit from a relative, who initially was not quite taken by relaxation. The relatives mother had a stroke, and attended the relaxation class whilst with us as an inpatient. When asked where she went during her relaxation period she described walking lane with her dad, and how this made her feel safe and in a very happy place. Unfortunately this patient came back into hospital shortly after discharge, and was made end of life. The daughter of the patient used this image to talk to her mother in her last days to make sure that she was in her happy place. The daughter felt that because of Linda’s relaxation classes, she was able to take these skills and give her mother her happy place in those last days. Linda is too humble to say anything but these classes that she runs means so much to the patients, and there is no one better to run them. Linda is an amazing example of someone who is living our values, showing kindness and promoting wellness in every part of her job.

October

Jack Ivany - Specialist Physiotherapist and Zoe Nicholls - Senior Occupational Therapist

Jack and Zoe

Jack and Zoe went above and beyond what we would feel is normal practice to support one of their patients from Shouldham Ward. They co-ordinated a visit to a Harvest Festival celebration in a church on the North Norfolk Coast for a young mother who had been identified as receiving end of life care and who was not medically stable to allow a discharge from hospital. The patient was able to see her small child in the Harvest Celebration, a time out of hospital shared with her extended family, making such a difference to a family and the wider community. Both Zoe and Jack liaised with multiple agencies, pulling everyone together for the patients benefit, thinking about every eventuality and coming up with solutions. This visit was not without risk which both staff members took very seriously, aware that this visit was going to take place among the inevitable organised chaos of a primary school event. They remained calm and considered, thinking about solutions as if they were enabling a friend to undertake the visit and at all times showing high levels of professionalism during what would have been a very emotional situation. Their dedication and values have enabled this patient and their family precious memories and without them as individuals this opportunity would have been missed, for that we as a service are very thankful. And finally this visit happened to fall on Jacks non-working day and without a moment's hesitation he changed plans, both in and out of work to facilitate this for the patient and her family. As a service we would like Jack and Zoe to know how thankful we are to have them within our service, the level of dedication and commitment to their patients and colleagues is exemplary.

These two individuals have organised and successfully fulfilled a Patients dying wish to see her young daughter at her school harvest festival. These inspirational individuals have undertaken a mammoth task of organising and conducting risk assessments to safely facilitate this amazing wish. Jack and Zoe have spent a long week sorting resources and organising transport and giving up their own time out of work to come in. To be able to take this responsibility and emotional journey on needs to be recognised and noted. Not only has this enabled a mother to watch one of her daughters milestones, which others can take for granted. Well done guys and we are all very proud of you!

November

Dr Rajah Nata, Senior Cardiology Specialist

Dr Nata

Dr Rajah Nata has been the life and soul of our department. He has been available at any time of day and has effectively single handily run the cardiology service over the last 20+ years without any major incidents. His phone is always on and answered any time of day and to his detriment it is shorter to call and ask him for advice than to looking things up online as his medical knowledge is seemingly endless. Most of my peers (including myself) have at some stage been trained, supervised and guided by him. He is the only doctor in this trust that is universally liked.

Dr Nata patients hold him in high regard. A particularly illustrative example is a patient who is longest surviving cardiac amyloidosis survivor in the world who still comes to see him for his yearly follow-up from abroad. As a result Dr Nata has in the past received an award from the Lynn News but sadly so far not from us so far. His commitment to his patients, his colleagues and the trust is beyond question.

Dr Nata has been nominated for these awards previously, but sadly has never won.

December

Claire Wright, Assistant Practitioner in the Rehabilitation team

Claire Wright

Although I have not worked with Claire for very long, I have had the privilege of watching her in action when working together on weekend shifts and when she has worked additional bank shifts within the acute medical therapy team to support with low staffing. Claire is incredibly passionate about her work and strives to ensure the best quality care for each patient on her caseload - according to their individual needs. She recently (and very excitedly) shared about a therapy session with me that absolutely warmed my Occupational Therapist's heart! Claire and the Elderly Therapy Team have been treating a patient on one of their wards who suffered from a brain injury. As part of his ongoing therapy input, Claire has been accompanying this patient to the upper limb group classes that are run on the Stroke Ward.

“As part of this group intervention, all patients were scheduled to make their own mince pies as part of a Christmas-themed session - and Claire had planned to take her patient to the Stroke Unit for this session. Due to some confusion related to timing, the patient missed the start of the session and it was too late for him to join in. He was disappointed and had been so looking forward to making his mince pies and surprising his wife with what he had achieved. Claire sprung into action and managed to get all of the necessary components from the Stroke Therapy team in order to be able to facilitate the session with her patient in the therapy ADL kitchen. She took photos of the process (with consent from the patient) so that she could show his wife his level of engagement and each step that he was able to complete independently. Claire ate her lunch in the ADL kitchen while waiting for the mince pies to bake following completion of the activity. When sharing the story with me, I could hear the joy in her voice at witnessing the reaction of the patient and his wife as he presented the mince pie that he had made for her - with supporting evidence from the photos and short video clips to demonstrate how much of the task he was able to achieve on his own as a result of his hard work in therapy to date. The patients wife will be freezing one of the mince pies for him to enjoy once he is able to eat solid foods again.

“I believe that this story demonstrates all 3 Trust values. Fairness and equity in treatment by ensuring that the patient was able to partake in the promised activity despite being late for the group session. Claire recognised the importance to the patient's well-being of completing this activity as he had been looking forward to and preparing for it. Kindness demonstrated throughout Claire's interactions with the patient and his wife. Well done Claire for the fantastic work that you do as an assistant practitioner in the Elderly Therapy Team - and this particularly heart-warming display of therapeutic intervention.”

2022

January

Bob Marsden, Volunteer

Bob Marsden

While recently volunteering on the Front Desk, Bob helped a visitor who came in for some help where they had a breathing machine which had stopped working. Bob offered to help with the concerns about the breathing machine acting with the Trust values in mind, listening to the concerns first and then acting to resolve the issue presented and the care he provided to the visitors in a calm friendly kind manner.

Bob offered to help by talking to a colleague from Royal Papworth Hospital who knew how to restart this type of machine. Bob offered to use his own mobile phone to do this so as not to block the main phone on reception, and followed the instructions provided to help fix the machine. As a volunteer, Bob always demonstrates the Trusts values listen, act and care.

February

Jessica Rump, Radiographer

Jessica Rump

Jessica started with Team QEH Radiology in August 2021 having done her training elsewhere. She has quietly gone about her initial preceptee period with professionalism and diligence and has shown encouraging clinical skills and patient care in this short space of time. Her work ethic, teamworking and personable attitude is appreciated by her colleagues. Around the Christmas and new year period there were numerous out of hours gaps that were left uncovered. Jessica was willing to cover several of these at short notice despite them being disruptive to her downtime. This enabled the service to continue as normal and is a further example of her willingness to integrate herself as a valued member of our team. I have no hesitation in nominating Jessica for this recognition as she has already shown the values and behaviours that exemplify the QEH.

March

Carina Fernandes Martinho, ED Nurse

Carina Fernandes Martinho

Carina's practice embodies the Trusts values. She is a clinically very competent nurse who is an excellent teacher and role model to others, she provides excellent care to her patients ensuring where appropriate that their families are kept up to date. She gives 100% to her patients and expects others to do the same. She is happy to challenge poor behaviour and practice (she is able to professionally challenge as she has the underpinning knowledge to communicate her concerns.

She takes pride in ensuring that her knowledge is broad and always up to date, she reads and is always wanting to learn). If she is not in a position to challenge she escalates and will not walk past something that she does not believe to be acceptable. She is a strong advocate for excellent basic care and safe handover, she will escalate anything less than gold standard.

Recently as the nurse in charge with staffing challenges it has been a difficult to be in all areas monitoring these standards at all times however Carina's eyes and ears are always open and I can trust her to ensure the correct standards are met in her area and the areas around her.

April

Louisa Smither, Clinical Physiologist

Louisa Smither

Since September 2021 as a department we have had to cope with a minimum of technical staff. Normally, Louisa (a trainee) would be working alongside two other experienced technicians, but over the past 6 months she has had to manage as a single-handed technician due to unforeseen circumstances.

Louisa successfully managed to rise to the challenge and has helped to steer the department in the right direction whilst also maintaining her educational requirements. I think this is exceptional for a trainee to achieve this and to adapt to a difficult situation without complaint, and it is for this reason I would like to nominate Louisa for an award. I am happy to discuss in more detail if needs be. Many thanks.

May

Sue Wright, HIS Team training officer

Sue Wright

e many wards and departments over the past few months, our team was impacted by long term and short-term sickness absence. Overnight, Sue had to become a one-man band, ensuring that staff nominated for their patient information computer training were booked, trained, and issued with the appropriate access, so they could do their job.

She absolutely stepped up to the challenge. To minimise disruption and delays for staff, she worked tirelessly, without complaint and always with a smile on her face, to get the staff through their training. It would have been easy for her to cut corners and let standards slip, but that is not Sue. She continued to deliver training to the same high standard, and would explain to you, it is extremely important that all delegates get the same experience and quality of service.

On top of this she offered support to her sick colleague, keeping in touch, and visiting to make sure she was on the road to recovery. The many positive comments from staff about their training clearly support what I know about Sue too - “Sue was absolutely fab and answered all my questions”, “Sue was brilliant, friendly and professional, with time for questions and a pace that suited me”, “Sue had a good knowledge of our requirements and even a novice would be able to leave with confidence”. Sue would in fact tell you, she has simply been doing her job during a challenging period for everyone, but I know she has done it amazingly well and beyond. She deserves to be recognised for the effort she has put in. Thank you for considering her.

June

Charlotte Angus, Trainee Nursing Associate

Charlotte Angus

Charlotte was looking after an elderly patient on the ward. She was made aware that the patients family needed to share with the patient, over the phone, some bad news about the patients son who was in another hospital. Charlotte listened to the family insight about her religious beliefs and arranged for the chaplain to be with the patient whilst the news was broken over the phone. Charlotte liaised with the Chaplain and the family to arrange a suitable time and co-ordinated the call and remained present to offer any further support should it be needed.

July

Ross Stewart, Communications Assistant

Ross Stewart

“No matter what he is faced with, he provides a smile and a willing can-do attitude. He goes out of his way to help other members of the team when they need it most. Whether that's providing support or just giving someone an encouraging word when they are feeling down, Ross is always there for others.

“Ross' work ethic and positive attitude make him an asset to our team.”

August

Paulo Belo, Charge Nurse

Paulo Belo

Feedback from the Medical Examiner: I spoke with the wife, and one of the sons, of the above gentleman today about the care he received during his admission. They said they received loving care from everyone they met in the hospital and, as a family, were so grateful. They also wanted to express their truly heartfelt thanks to you specifically Paulo. I was initially speaking to one of the sons, but the patient's wife then wanted to speak to me herself to let me know how grateful she was to you and how much she thought of the care you gave them. She said "Paulo was absolutely outstanding in the care he gave us, I/we will never be able to thank him enough. He held my hand whilst my husband was dying and put his arm around me. He made such a terrible situation almost bearable for me. Please find him for me and let him know what I've said." I promised I would do that of course, it was a very emotional telephone call as she and her son both felt so strongly about the care you gave them all. Thank you for everything you did for them all.

September

Jo Hayes, Clinical Medical Examiner Officer

Jo Hayes

Good afternoon Ms Shaw, I have been meaning to send this for a long time and have just been reminded to do so thanks to another full day of Death registrations at your hospital. I know you are stepping down, but before you leave, would you have time to nominate for an award, a certain Joanne Hayes of the Medical Examiners’ Office, for the absolutely wonderful job she does ensuring that the MCCD paperwork we receive in the Registration Service is immaculate at all times, with doctors names printed clearly, all information filled in and if a cause of death is to be queried, she makes a note of it for future reference to pass along to her doctors. Her quality of work is supreme. Whenever I phone her, which is invariably at the end of the day for the next day’s appointment, with a query (and the times I have had to call are so few and far between, it’s a miracle), she has always stayed late, way past when she should and never takes time for lunch as there is always someone popping in her office. Jo is always ready to help and despite an incredibly busy and pressurised job, has a sense of humour and graciousness and goes out of her way to support us, while not suffering fools either. I just wish there was some reward we could offer from the registration service ourselves, as she saves us hours each week, and that is not an exaggeration, thinking about the problem paperwork we get from other sources. I cannot praise her highly enough.

October

Sam Cook, Associate Practitioner ENT Lead

Photo of Sam Cook

Sam works in the ENT department. She is kind and always friendly. My son has really struggled coming into the ENT clinic and has been seeing a clinical psychologist. Sam came in on her day off to meet with me my son and the psychologist to help ease charlies stress and anxiety. It's been a really difficult journey for my son since being diagnosed with his ear condition but whenever we come to the clinic, she will help ease his anxiety and now he will look for her. Its nice to see someone go the extra mile and help. Charlie really felt going to the clinic room with her helpful he saw that the equipment isn't that scary.

November

Phulmattie Mohan, Matron

Picture of Phulmattie Mohan, Matron receiving her Living Our Values Award

It is challenging to identify which of our values to select for Matron Mohan. I believe that Mohan is a credible role model and at every opportunity both champions and embeds Kindness, Wellness and Fairness. We all have our roles and objectives however what I experienced and observed demonstrated going way above and beyond expectations every day. She was able to observe and acknowledge my struggles and did not walk by but take time out of her manic day to sit, actively listen, support and be kind to understand and appreciate the challenges I was having. Mohan had the desire to support me whilst remaining positive and compassionate and was exceptional in her support and provided me her time when I really needed it and where others ignored my requests. Following this Mohan encountered an individual who was angry and unsettled and her ability to adapt so professionally to care, listen and actively through effective communication establish and both calm and rectify the issue with ease. I frequently witness true championing of exceptional individualised care to both colleagues and patients appropriately challenging whilst coaching, to ensure the best for our patients and this Trust. Mohan will always think of others over herself and leads by example and nothing is ever too much trouble, she remains positive and is a breath of fresh air/ray of sunshine when entering the ward environment. Mohan is well respected by teams and ensures well being of others whilst supporting change and compassionate high quality care journeys.

December

Deja John, Healthcare Assistant

Picture of Deja John and her A&E Colleagues receiving her Living Our Values Award

I would like to nominate a A&E Healthcare Assistant, Deja John, who I witnessed providing great care whilst I was in A&E. Deja gave the most outstanding, exemplary, respectfully appropriate care to an injured non verbal adult patient who had learning difficulty who I'm sure was frightened, as well as his very elderly parents. Deja was so attentive but not overly so, and demonstrated so many great skills. Her level of communication to both patient and parents was absolutely perfect. Deja was so calm, polite, friendly, caring and reassuring and never once condescending, always checking that they understood and communicating gentle offers of reassurance that can sometimes be forgotten. Nothing was too much trouble. Deja offered to take the patient to x-ray as a familiar face for the patient and make this process easier. On their return Deja praised the patient for doing so well and communicated this to the patients parents, which was both reassuring for them, and simply a nice thing to do. Deja's level of care demonstrated kindness and consideration for everyone's wellness and not just the patient. Witnessing Deja's interaction with both patient and family was inspiring and I was very proud to witness this. Great job. Deja you are in my opinion an asset to our Trust.