This week, colleagues across the Trust were showing some of CHFT's senior management team the ropes so they could find out more about their roles in all departments and areas.
Called "Back to the Floor" it was the idea of Louise Riby, a Sister on children's outpatients. She suggested it would help the Board 'stand in the shoes' of our colleagues and see things from their perspective.
Here's a round-up of someof those taking part and a massive thankyou to everyone who hosted a guest for their time and sharing their pride in their job
Our Head of Workforce and Organisational Development Suzanne Dunkley shared the shoes with our Occupational Health team. Here's her thoughts.
What’s the thinking behind it? That we can only truly see things from colleagues' perspective if we 'stand in their shoes'. By better understanding things from colleagues perspective, we can make the right decisions that can improve ways of working for them. We can also better understand what new technology may support them to deliver better care to our patients and make their job easier.
What struck you about your time answering Occy Health telephone inquiries. That we support a lot of colleagues who are in turn supporting our patients. This is why one culture of care is so important at CHFT. It's important that we care for each other in the same way that we care for our patients so that we are physically and mentally fit to deliver compassionate care. After all, 80% of us live in Calderdale and Huddersfield and 100% of us are patients of the NHS, so we are the patient.
How important do you think Occy Health is for CHFT? Extremely. The team look after each other so well - and I am enormously proud of Christine and her team.
Would you let Christine Bouckley be you for a swap trial? Absolutely - we have already agreed that she would do a great job - apparently she wants to do this on a Board day!
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Chief Nurse Ellen Armistead was out-reached by Florentina Uta - Ward 12's domestic. She also shadowed porter, Stuart Berry (see below for photo)
Why did you want to shadow Florentina?
I felt it was really important to work alongside our wonderful domestic staff, often among our unsung heroes
What struck you about the role?
Flori was kept busy with all of her routine tasks as well as responding to urgent issues. It’s a busy role but also very satisfying to be able to see the results of the hard work right there and then.
How important are domestics?
The role is absolutely critical to our aim of reducing hospital acquired infections. We know how much patients and the public value high standards of cleanliness and Flori really gets this. Also the domestic staff are often the people patients choose to talk to and seek support from. It's much more than simply cleaning ward and department areas.
Would you swap with Florentina?
Her long arms and legs, she can reach the high level cleaning jobs, I needed the special brush ! And yes of course she's welcome to shadow my role.
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Company Secretary Andrea McCourt was the guest of Pathology.
She says: " I was amazed by the volume, range and complexity of work that goes on in Pathology across both sites. I now realise how crucial the services that our Pathology staff provide is to treatment decisions and care of our patients, with 70% of diagnoses made using Pathology results. It really feels like the engine room of the hospital! Bio-Chemistry alone does 2.25 million tests a year." (more from Andrea attached).
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Director of Transformation and Partnerships, Anna Basford, joined Outpatients.
Patients and families have spoken to me about the really significant impact this has had on their life. I feel humbled and proud to work with all the amazing colleagues in the Trust who do this every day - providing the very highest standard of clinical expertise, assuring patients and families, and making people feel special and cared for. Thank you to every-one that has given me the opportunity to spend time in their service this week. I've had such an interesting week in several outpatient services and learnt many new things. I have seen fantastic examples of innovation, led by staff, which are improving access to care. Seeing the impact this has on people lives has been amazing, and inspiring."
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Addition on Friday 27th September - please see photos below
Non Executive Director, Alistair Graham spent an interesting afternoon with the Pharmacy Department
I had a great afternoon finding out about our pharmacy service and trying out various tasks myself (under strict supervision!). Thank you Fiona for your time and very helpful input, and please pass on my thanks to Brenda and Helen.
I didn’t realise we had an asceptic unit and it was fascinating find out how these medicines are prepared, particularly the care that is taken to ensure correct concentrations and to minimise the risk of infection. It was also very helpful to see how we make sure the stocks of medicines on the various wards are maintained, particularly across the two hospital sites, and how we ensure we don’t use out-of-date medicines.