We held our annual Nursing, Midwifery and AHP (allied health professionals) Conference earlier this month, which focused on celebrating our diversity, as well as our achievements.

Chief Nurse Kathryn Halford gave a welcome address to open the conference, while some Bollywood dancers provided entertainment (pictured).

Among the speakers at the conference was speech and language therapist (SLT) Oliver Sawyer, who spoke about equality, diversity and inclusion in SLT. Less than four per cent of SLTs are male, while 75 per cent studying it are white.

Our LGBT+ network was one of the things which attracted Oliver to work at our Trust, seeing it as an inclusive place to work. While he has experienced homophobia at work, he praised some of the good work going on to improve inclusion across our hospitals, including our staff networks, and My Conversations, which led to an engaging chat with his supervisor.

Elaine Carter-Leay, transfusion practitioner who has worked at our Trust for over 20 years, shared her journey through rehab and finding a role which made her feel valued after a crash aged 29 left her in a wheelchair.

Having been an A&E nurse, she’d wanted to return but after a lengthy rehabilitation, it wasn’t feasible. She tried different roles over the years, desperate for colleagues not to feel they were carrying her when there were things she couldn’t do.

On her current job, she said: “It’s the first role since my accident I’ve felt fully able to do and I feel valued. I belong, and the team are brilliant.”

And while attitudes are changing, Elaine pointed out buildings still need to be more accessible.

Other presentations included our Maternity team sharing a project which had helped improve triaging women in labour, and Chipo Chandiwana, senior sister, sharing interventional radiology patient feedback.

Kathryn also presented prizes to winners in a range of categories, see full list of winners below.

Category 1 – Student nurse/midwife/AHP of the year

Winner: Katarzyna (Kasia) Jolley-Kurkowiak  

Student nurse, QH ED

Category 2 - HCA, MCA or therapy assistant of the year

Amanda Davies

Acute Oncology Advanced Support Worker

Category 3 - Registered nurse of the year

Sinead Skelton

Ward Manager, Iris ward, KGH

Category 4 - Registered midwife of the year

Cissy Nakuya

Band 6 Coral Ward

Category 5 - Allied health professional of the year

Siobhan Graham

Head of Radiotherapy

Category 6 - Preceptee of the year

Elise Anipa

Harm Free Care Nurse, Band 5

Ma Kristina Cristostomo

Category 7 - Chief Nurse long service award

Agnes Sammy – midwife

Category 8 - Chief Nurse pride values award

Edgar Villena

Band 7, Deputy Chief Technician, Nuclear Medicine Dept, QH

Category 9 - Exceptional Chief Nurse Award: For AHP leadership contribution to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic 

Lisa Lomas – Head of Therapies

Category 10 - Exceptional Chief Nurse Award: For Clinical Nurse Specialist contribution to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic

Sian Olivo - Deputy Director Infection Prevention and Control

Heather Wright - Macmillan Palliative Care Team Leader

Annette Curran – Matron, Respiratory Care