WINNER

Caring for our Staff caring for our patients!
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust
Sarb Clare, Deputy Medical Director, Acute Medical Consultant
Eoin Dore, anaesthetic trainee, Lead of Junior Doctors Forum

The Trust focused on the wellbeing of their junior doctors who were the least likely staff group to take up wellbeing benefits. The project was driven from the grass roots up by junior doctors, medical consultants and the organisational development executive.
They focused on 4 key areas: wellbeing workshops to address burnout, Energy Pods to address REST (20-minute power naps), recruitment of a Wellbeing Champion, multiple rest areas and facilities for food and communal places. The project has led to increased confidence and staff morale, leading to better teamwork and a higher quality of patient care.

Key points:
• 90% agreed that having access to a dedicated team is valuable, burnout results have improved dramatically,
• Sickness rates have decreased in junior doctors and other grades of doctors suggesting that staff working in the same proximity benefitted from the higher morale of their colleagues.
• Results showed 82% of doctors taking breaks using the pods – which has improved their alertness, concentration and energy. 94% of doctors and 83% of nurses who used this facility felt this had an improvement on their wellbeing.

Judges’ view

The judges thought this was an innovative and inspiring project, focused on the health and wellbeing of junior doctors, a group which were traditionally hard to reach in terms of wellbeing engagement. This was a great example of a local project inspired and driven by frontline staff connecting with and being embraced by the wider leadership and organisation.

Contact: sclare@nhs.net

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Improving Patient Care Through Improving Staff Wellbeing

North Bristol NHS Trust

Guy Dickson, Head of People Strategy

The Trust set out to embed its successful staff wellbeing programme into the organisational culture – delivering a one-off, Trust- wide programme to help reduce absence and ensure that self-care and care for colleagues became the ‘how we do things around here’. A significant improvement in staff sickness levels, engagement and patient care has been achieved.  They achieved in 2019 a CQC rating of ‘good’ with ‘caring’ being rated as outstanding.

Key points:

• ‘Fresh Arts’ staff wellbeing programme to include creative writing, craft session, choir
• Additional clinical psychologist role providing 1:1 support exclusively to consultants
• Outdoor green gym
• Wellbeing focussed staff flu vaccination programme – reaching 78% of staff
• Psychologists working with teams to build self-care, peer support and ongoing resilience
• Physio advice focused on working with teams with high levels of MSK sickness.

Judges’ view

This was an excellent example of an organisation that had developed and embedded a comprehensive Staff Health and Wellbeing Strategy, at the core of their mission. There was good evidence of impact of the programme and of commitment to investment.

Contact: guy.dickson@nbt.nhs.uk

FINALIST

Velindre University NHS Trust

Karen Wright, Assistant Director of Workforce

The Trust defined menopause is a significant wellbeing priority and worked towards becoming a Menopause Aware and Supportive Employer (MASE). They introduced the Menopause Café, Manager Guidance, Intranet Page, Awareness Training, H&WB services and support which have been well received.. The intranet page saw employees contributing information and resources with 160-page hits in the first two months.

Key points:

• Positive impact on employees and patients, decrease in female staff sickness, increase in those seeking advice
• Menopause Café has been opened up to chemotherapy patients who often experience early medically induced menopause.
• Growing reputation as a menopause exemplar employer sharing learning with other organisations

Judges’ view

An excellent case study with menopause recognised as a significant employee wellbeing issue.

This was a great example of how a leader’s personal story and passion led to a cultural change in respect to health and wellbeing.

Contact: Karen.wright8@wales.nhs.uk

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