A supportive and knowledgeable materials handler; a warm, professional and efficient admin assistant; a nurse consultant who is a shining example of kindness, humanity and professionalism; and a dedicated sister/charge nurse with exceptional organisation skills are the winners of October-November’s You Made a Difference awards.
Nelson Rodrigues Da Silva joined CUH’s bank staff in 2014 working in our kitting service as a materials handler. Nelson excelled in this role and joined the team permanently in 2015. In 2018 Nelson was appointed as a materials controller and team leader in main theatres and has diligently lead and worked with the team.
Most recently, Nelson has maintained the service for a period of over two months in main theatres while his supervisor was on leave and then cross-training to cover the service in the Addenbrooke’s treatment centre and neurology theatres.
The winning nomination said:
Nelson is constantly (and literally) running around for theatre members of staff which is widely recognised by members of theatre staff, but it's about time he received a nomination for this. Whilst dealing with the fast paced environment theatres demands he never allows his stress to show to the team he manages and always finds time to help and give us the support we need.
Thanks to Nelson's knowledge, good management skills and his work ethic, he has helped save the lives of patients during emergencies and continues to keep a happy and productive team and never expects a "thank you".
Kelly Eeles started at the Trust in March 2020 on the week we went into lockdown. The role of the administrative assistant is varied and very busy and Kelly had a lot to learn. Since starting, Kelly has grown and blossomed in her role and is such a credit to the unit and the Trust.
She is always very professional, efficient and hard working. Kelly is a highly valued and essential part of the G2 team. The whole team is proud of everything she has achieved in her short time working at CUH and will look forward to seeing her continue to develop as time goes by.
This is reflected in the winning nomination, extracts of which told us:
Kelly started her job in the Trust on the day the country went into lockdown. She has learnt the role in incredibly difficult circumstances. She has a warm and professional way of talking to patients and relatives and builds a rapport instantly. She radiates enthusiasm and is an example of Safe, Kind and Excellent.
Kelly has also taken the role of training a new starter despite being relatively new herself and is excelling at this. I am incredibly proud to have her as part of my team and cannot praise her enough.
Diana Day has many years of experience working at CUH and in that time Diana has made a huge difference to the patients’ experiences, to the Trust and to the stroke service.
Diana helped set up an acute stroke unit in CUH, built and lead a team of stroke bleep nurses who are active 24/7, and continuously makes efforts to bring the stroke patient's experience to an excellent level of care recognised at a national level.
This is reflected in the winning nomination, extracts of which told us:
I am honoured to have the pleasure to work with Diana, she is leading by example, is always available, supportive and is an unlimited resource of ideas and projects of development.
“I am sure Diana has made a difference in many aspects of nursing care and service development, but more than everything she made a difference to me. I have now a wider vision of the nursing profession, a deeper understanding of stroke care and patient needs, and her example of kindness, humanity and professionalism was a strong contribution to it.”
Diana was able to transmit her love and enthusiasm to the rest of the team and I definitely found the benefit as a person and a professional.
Jo Outtrim has worked with the critical care specialist nurse team since 2017. Her background in neurosurgical critical care and research has contributed to the experience and skills that the specialist nurse team has.
Jo has lead on organising the ‘post Covid-19 follow up clinic’ which runs four days a week and aims to assess all patients that have come through CUH with Covid-19, including the critical care patients.
The complexity and coordination required to organise this multi-professional clinic has been exceptional and required a lot of time, energy and skill. The clinic is running smoothly and efficiently. Patients leave the clinic with a holistic plan of recovery and are followed up with a phone call from the critical care psychologist.
Jo’s nomination said:
Jo has been the predominant organiser of the post-Covid follow-up clinic. Due to the amount of professionals at the clinic and complexity of the patient group, organising a clinic like this requires exceptional organisational skill, attention to detail, dedication and hours of work behind the scenes. Jo has demonstrated all of these characteristics.
Jo’s skills have resulted in a complex clinic running smoothly and with patient leaving with a holistic plan of recovery. This in turn creates a calm and organised environment and an enjoyable and rewarding experience for the staff involved.