All of Ward 17 at HRI have been hailed this month for their combined effort to diffuse a very difficult situation*

On-call manager Kathryn Aldous attended and found the team having to manage a situation where the police had had to be called. Security have said it was one of the most challenging situations they had to deal with. And their effort made them the clear choice for this month's Star Award judging panel out of eight nominations submitted this month.

Kathryn writes: "The team maintained a calm enviroment for all of the remaining patients on the ward.There were some new nursing staff only recently qualified working on the ward at the time of the incident and I saw that they professionally and calmly reassured patients and visitors during this difficult situation.

"At one point the patients had to be moved to one end for their own safety and again staff acted calmly and professionally.  I know this is probably expected,  that staff will need to be able to deal with this, but to see how they worked as a team was fantastic and a testament to the whole ward and its leadership. The ward are to be commended for how they managed the situation over such a long period of time and remained calm and professional."

Ward manager Donna Cole (in front of Owen)  said after the  certificate presentation yesterday by our CEO: " The team on ward 17 regularly have to deal with very challenging situations. We have joint handovers to make sure all the team in both areas are aware of where there maybe potential for  difficulties.  When situations do arise they all work closely as a team at all times in support of each other and for our patients."

 (for reasons of confidentiality we cannot specifiy as it centered on one of our patients)

You can send in your nomination by clicking here to access a form. There are three days left to nominate in October.