An inspirational and enthusiastic diabetes educator who is unfailingly helpful with a passion for her job; and a quietly courageous and discretely tenacious lead nurse who goes above and beyond, are the winners of February’s You Made a Difference awards.
Helen Fenton started her role with the diabetes team as diabetes educator in 2018, although she has worked for the Trust since 2013.
The main focus of Helen’s role is to provide support and education to patients and their carers, supporting the diabetes nurses in helping discharge patients. She also supports outpatient clinics by teaching patients new technology, and teaches on the healthcare assistant teaching programmes.
Helen often goes over and above to ensure our patients receive the right education and the support materials and equipment they need. She always helps with study days, organising education weeks and finding raffle prizes for staff to entice them to get involved.
Helen’s manager said of her: “She is unfailingly helpful and reliable – if Helen says she will do something you never have to double check because it has always been done.” Adding:
Helen’s energy and enthusiasm is endless and she is an amazing asset to the team.
This is reflected in the winning nomination from a colleague, extracts of which told us:
“We would like to recognise Helen's energy and passion for her job as a diabetes educator. Since Helen took on this role she has not stopped going over and above at every turn to ensure our patients have the best service possible for their diabetes education.”
Helen will always find a way to research how something can be done for the benefit of the patient.
For example, she approached the finance department to request the purchase of a mobile phone to assist a patient on the ward with type 1 diabetes who was registered blind. The mobile would speak the patient’s blood glucose levels out loud, allowing them to feel confident going home. This could so easily have been written off as an impossible task.
“Helen has proactively nominated herself to be upskilled to run education sessions with patients who are starting to use diabetes equipment such as Libre sensors and Dexcom continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices. This is something we have never expected somebody in this role to take on, but which has alleviated pressure off the rest of the team and has helped hugely.”
We think Helen massively deserves this recognition and is an inspiration to us all.
Louise Corbett joined CUH in 2008 as a junior sister working on D6 haematology. Prior to CUH Louise worked at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and brought with her an amazing level of haematology experience.
Louise has successfully applied for a series of promotions during her time at CUH. She has worked as a senior sister on both ward D6 and the oncology day unit; she has been a cancer outpatient cancer matron, and most recently as the lead nurse for cellular therapies.
Louise is a kind and compassionate nurse; she is quietly courageous and discretely tenacious.
In the context of the increasing numbers of people living with haematological cancers, and the complexity of delivering new biological therapies, Louise and her team advocate for every single patient and willingly go above and beyond to ensure patients are treated in a timely and safe way.
Personalised medicine presents enormous potential benefits for our patients and Louise is instrumental in ensuring we plan for this in our haematology services.
Extracts of Louise’s nomination said:
“One of our patients has had a bone marrow transplant and needed additional cells from their donor, but the patient tested positive for Covid.”
“The patient can't receive the cells in a red (Covid) ward because they are very prone to picking up infections, and they can’t go to a haematology ward because of their own infection.”
Louise went above and beyond to find a resolution.
“Louise negotiated to secure a day unit out of hours. She then stayed until after midnight to give the cells to the patient and ensure the patient was fit for discharge. Having the cells saved this patient’s life.”