The outstanding contribution of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Health Care Support Worker (HCSW) colleagues has been celebrated with a special event.
Held at the Trust’s Medical Education Centre, Associate Chief Nurse for Education, Workforce and Professional Practice in Corporate Services, Emma Addie opened the celebration, welcoming all attendees before presenting a number of awards to the very worthy winners.
HCSWs can work across a variety of settings, helping patients on their journey back to full health. This can include monitoring patients and performing basic health checks, making patients feel comfortable, washing and dressing patients and serving meals or helping to feed them.
Chief Nursing Officer, Kev Parker-Evans said: “Every single one of our Health Care Support Workers (HCSW) do an amazing job, providing over 90% of the care that our patients receive while they are with us at WWL.
“The role of the HCSW has and continues to grow, with new skills, ways of working and new roles that see these colleagues playing a crucial part alongside our Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals (AHP) colleagues. Thank you all for everything that you do for our patients and teams every day and congratulations to all of our worthy winners; you should be very proud.”
Winners of special awards on the day included:
- Healthcare Support Team of the Year – Early Years Neurodevelopment Team
- Midwifery Support Worker of the Year – Anne Allen (Daisy Midwifery Team)
- AHP Support Worker of the Year – Kim Gerrard (Radiology)
- Nursing Support Worker of the Year – Rebecca Melling (Health Outreach and Inclusion)
- Going the Extra Mile Award – Beverly Sumner (Ward D – Wrightington Hospital)
- Fundamentals of Care Award – Katie Grice (Surgical Ambulatory Emergency Care - Orrell Ward)
During the event, HCSW colleagues from across the Trust gave ‘A Day in The Life of’ presentations about some of the different HCSW roles. They included Theatre Assistant, Simon Atherton, Ward Based Nursing Support Worker, Julie Fagan, and Angela Humphrey who spoke about her role as a Community Based Support Worker. In addition, WWL Clinical Informatics Champion, Nathan Sinclair, was this year’s Inspirational Speaker’. Nathan kindly spoke about his career pathway, neurodiversity and overcoming barriers that people may face.
Also in attendance was Helen Hollinshead, Trainer Assessor from Wigan and Leigh College, to celebrate the achievements of the Pilot Cohort of the Level 2 Higher Development Award.
This pilot was made possible by a collaboration between WWL’s Professional Education Team and Greater Manchester’s AHP Lead. Earlier in the year, WWL received funding to introduce the Higher Development Award to enhance opportunities for Continuing Professional Development Opportunities for HCSW colleagues. At the HCSW celebration event, eight members of HCSW staff were presented with their certificates of achievement from Nicholas Hughes, Associate Chief of Infection Control Prevention, and will receive their official qualification later this year.