Hospital staff celebrated with prestigious awards

The highest standards of care, compassion and innovation have been recognised at the Annual Awards Ceremony for the Royal United Hospitals Bath (RUH) NHS Foundation Trust.

Team of the Year - the Echocardiology team

More awards than ever before were presented on Friday 12 May at Bath Pavilion, selected from over 120 nominations in 16 categories. Staff were thanked for making a difference for the people they care for, the people they work with and people in the wider community.

The Echocardiography team working in Diagnostic Cardiology was named as Team of the Year for embedding a truly responsive and supportive culture, creating the conditions for the whole team to perform at their best.

As a result, the service has been accredited by the British Society of Echocardiography, and was commended in a number of areas. The team's commitment to training has been particularly highlighted, including work to grow the sonographer workforce for the future against a national shortage.

The award for Most Innovative Team of the Year went to the Eye Unit nursing team for transforming the pre-operative process for patients who need cataract surgery. The nursing team learnt new skills to allow them to do more checks in a single appointment, avoiding additional visits for patients. This helps patients get the care they need more quickly, as well as being more environmentally-friendly with less travel.

The team also created its own in-house training course for nurse injectors, and is now delivering 150 sight-saving injections per week.

Other award winners included:

• Volunteer of the Year Mark Kendall for selflessly donating his time to the Acute Stroke Unit after being cared for there himself;
• Learning and Development Lead Hugh McKinney who won the Working with Our Community Award for reaching out across the local area to engage young people in NHS careers;
• Junior Sister Patsy Boyd who won the Lifetime Achievement Award for her 51 year NHS career mentoring and developing thousands of nurses while providing outstanding patient care;
• and Clinical Practice Facilitator Mary Jane Paclar who uses her personal experience of joining the NHS from the Philippines to inspire healthcare assistants from abroad to follow their professional ambitions to qualify as nurses.

The Chair's Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to Consultant Anaesthetist Jerry Nolan, who is an international leading light in resuscitation science, benefiting countless NHS patients and their loved ones.

The Chief Executive's Award was presented to Charge Nurse Leigh Ingham for his exceptional clinical acumen and outstanding examination skills. Leigh was praised for always going the extra mile to listen and provide the gold standard of patient-centred care.

Staff were also recognised for 25, 35, 45 and 50 years of service.

Alison Ryan, Chair, said: "It was an honour to celebrate so many inspirational and dedicated colleagues in roles right across the hospital. Much of this fantastic work goes unseen but makes such a difference.

"We have a vision at the RUH to be a place where every single person knows and feels that they matter, and our awards ceremony was a chance to recognise the many, many different things that our wonderful colleagues and teams to do make that a reality.

"On behalf of our Board of Directors I'd like to congratulate all our winners, and those who were deservedly nominated too. We are very proud."

The full list of winners:

• Team of the Year: Echocardiography team in Diagnostic Cardiology
• Most Innovative Team of the Year: Eye Unit nursing team
• Chief Executive's Award: Charge Nurse Leigh Ingham
• Chair's Outstanding Achievement Award: Consultant Anaesthetic Jerry Nolan
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Junior Sister Patsy Boyd
• Rising Star Award: Project Manager Bryony Robertson
• Wellbeing at Work Award: Consultant Anaesthetist Chris Seller
• Leader of the Year: Respiratory Ward Manager Lizzy Watts
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award: Clinical Site Manager Tabitha Stewart
• Kindness and Civility Award: Lead Clinical Practice Facilitator Mark Doblas
• Personal Achievement Award: Clinical Practice Facilitator Mary Jane Paclar
• Patient Safety Award: Senior Physiotherapist Nina Stuckey
• Research and Innovation Award: Immersive Technology in Healthcare Project
• Working with our Community Award: Learning and Development Lead Hugh McKinney
• Student of the Year: Trainee Echocardiographer Isaac Watkinson
• Volunteer of the Year: Acute Stroke Unit volunteer Mark Kendall

ENDS

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