Star Award finalists 2022

Marc Buchanan

York Hospital

Jill Hinken

Community Response Team

Claudia Sheriff-Pinches

York Hospital

Alex Williams

York Hospital

Michelle Large

Midwife

Eye Theatres Team

York Hospital

Lesley Harrison

Staff Nurse, York Hospital

Sue Cowley

Midwife, York Hospital

Critical Care Outreach Team

Sally-Anne Dawson

Scarborough Hospital

Ophthalmology Team

Community Stadium

Vicki Beattie

York Hospital

Gill Ratcliffe

Health Care Assistant, York Hospital

York ICU Team

York Hospital

Ben Wells

Ginta Kurian

Scarborough Hospital

Deborah Ransome

Whitecross Court

Debs was nominated by both a patient's family member and by a colleague for her amazing way of interacting with those she's caring for.

Debs ensures each patient gets the care that they need and deserve, never rushing them. She is so reassuring and has a lovely way of calming the patient to make their care as stress-free as it can be. Debs is always willing to help out other members of the team and never complains.

She goes above and beyond her role by not only caring for patients, but offering comfort and advice to struggling family members, too.

Beth Finelli

York Hospital

Since becoming Deputy Sister in the Vascular Imaging Unit, Beth has worked tirelessly to make the unit a better place.

She is a fantastic nurse who builds confidence within her team and shows nothing but compassion towards her patients.

Emma Flack

York Hospital

Emma was nominated by a patient recovering from a mastectomy and reconstruction that they were extremely nervous about.

The patient had already had six months of chemotherapy and was feeling vulnerable. "I had lost my dignity, independence, and confidence and was in a lot of physical pain. Emma went above and beyond."

Emma took care of everything, from small touches like changing the bed and ensuring the patient could reach their things to bigger moments like dealing with panic attacks - all while lifting the mood with a big smile.

Emma provided extraordinary care while five months pregnant and has been described by the patient as incredible. "This woman is incredible! I genuinely feel emotional talking about her as I can’t tell you how different my experience would have been. Thank you Emma. I am incredibly grateful to you."

Siobhan Sutton

York Hospital

Siobhan has been nominated by three members of staff for coming into work on her day off, with her daughter, to ensure a patient could be entered into a drug study so he could access treatment that isn't currently licensed for use with his condition.

While there were hurdles to overcome, Siobhan worked tirelessly with the study sponsor and the patient. If she hadn't, the patient would've missed the recruitment window and wouldn't be receiving the new treatment this is believed to be the best option for his condition.

"She is just so enthusiastic, hard working, encouraging and supportive. She never says it won't work. She works out the solution to any problem. She is truly amazing."

Carol Gallagher-Jewison

Scarborough Hospital

Carol, a HCA at Scarborough's emergency department, has been nominated by her colleagues for saving two lives on one very busy nightshift.

Early in the night, Carol prevented a patient from taking their own life. Later on shift, after noticing a patient begin bleeding from an artery, Carol once again jumped into action. Without hesitation, Carol applied pressure to the bleed while calling for help.

She used her full body weight to apply pressure for over an hour while doctors gave the patient care. While Carol was visible shaken after both incidents in such a short space of time, she carried out the end of her shift in her usual professional manner. A colleague has said, "ED are very lucky to have her as part of their team. She always brings light to a shift, even in the darkest of times."

Emergency Department Reception and Admin Team

Scarborough Hospital

At the front line of meeting and supporting patients, the ED Reception and Admin team regularly go above and beyond.

One recent incident included a member of the team greeting a patient, immediately recognising they were experiencing a heart-related emergency, and calling for urgent clinical help before the patient went into cardiac arrest. On a different occasion, another colleague alerted the triage nurses to a serious safeguarding situation that may have otherwise been missed.

The waiting area is constantly busy and the reception and admin team provide an valuable function in overseeing and supporting our patients within it.

Fiona Ayre, Urology Macmillan Cancer Specialist Nurse

York Hospital

Fiona is known to be a hard-working, caring individual, however in dealing with a patient with advanced dementia who was newly diagnosed with bladder cancer she went a step beyond.

She acted as the patient's advocate, liaising with his wife, who had power of attorney, and daughter in Australia. Fiona contacted various departments within the hospital which took many hours of her time to understand the cancer diagnosis and that no treatment was in the patient's best interests. This was an incredibly tough series of discussions which Fiona took on in her stride. Because of this, Fiona has been described as 'a phenomenal nurse and caring individual’.

Ward 17

York Hospital

One night, a teenage patient with mental health problems barricaded themselves into a side room on the ward. It was impossible to open the door more than 5cm maximum as the patient refused to move the barricade and was threatening to harm themselves.

Staff made significant attempts to de-escalate the situation, but due to a risk of harm to the patient and staff, security were called and broke down the door. The patient was successfully kept safe and staff were removed from the risk of physical harm.

All staff went above and beyond to achieve the safest outcome for the patient.

Emma Darrell, Medical Secretary and Dr Gemma Williams, Consultant

Scarborough Hospital

The parent of a sick child highlighted Emma and Gemma for the care they received on a particularly bad day where they needed help. Describing them as ‘excellent people doing excellent work’ the pair are praised for their assistance.

Emma understood the parent was struggling to maintain composure and showed such ‘genuine and authentic’ compassion in the situation at a time where no one else had and went the extra mile. Dr Gemma is praised for her communication skills, she ‘talks to people on a human level and considers the wellbeing of everyone - and not consider them as a number on a conveyor belt and this method of treatment shines.’

Both are described as ‘earth angels’, not just there for sick children but also for the support network behind them - ‘this effect ripples’.

Sophie Hoult

Scarborough Hospital

When a young lady presented during a busy Saturday shift with worrying symptoms Sophie prioritised and thoroughly assessed her. Where the patient had previously felt she had not been listened to, Sophie took the time to listen to all of her concerns and gain a thorough history. As a result, an urgent CT scan was requested for the patient, not normally given on a weekend but Sophie insisted due to the worrying nature of the patient's symptoms. It became apparent that the patient had a large blood clot and treatment and monitoring could begin immediately due to Sophie’s quick thinking and thorough assessment. Her colleague Niamh nominated Sophie as a brilliant example of exemplifying the Trust values through her patient care ‘not only did Sophie act as the patient's advocate to ensure quick diagnosis and treatment, but she also always treats every patient with respect, kindness and patience’.

Interventional Radiology Team

Scarborough Hospital

Consultant Radiologist, Marcus Nicholls, had a full interventional radiology list scheduled at Scarborough Hospital with a growing list of acutely unwell patients on wards who also needed the procedure. There were more patients than could be done on his list. This meant either patients in hospital waited longer in a bed until the next list could be arranged after the Easter holiday, or some suspected cancer patients awaiting a biopsy would have to be cancelled and rearranged. Marcus discussed with the nursing team supporting his list and all agreed to work over breaks and run over if necessary to ensure all the patients waiting had their procedure that day. The team did an amazing job, not stopping until all of the patients were done - showing a fantastic dedication to patient care, plus patients on ward areas had their pain relieved and could be discharged from hospital sooner.

Jeanette Husband and Lisa Young

York

Jeanette and Lisa walked into a very busy ward early in the morning to fulfill their duties as therapy assistants. However, upon realising how swamped the staff were with people needing assistance with personal care, transfers to chairs to prepare for breakfast and feeding, the two of them helped ward staff with anything that needed doing. They stayed around three hours, lightening the workload of the ward before getting on with their own work. All the ward staff were very appreciative of the simple gesture on that specific day and cannot imagine how they would have managed without them. ‘This is not the first time I’ve witnessed these individuals go above and beyond their duties to help the ward. When I was in my previous ward, they also came and helped our staff.’

Garry Connoly

Scarborough

Garry is the main gardener and is a very talented and hardworking individual, having served at the Trust for a number of years. He is known for never saying no to helping people, whether it’s staff, patients, visitors or animals. Garry consistently goes out of his way to help those in need without ever expecting anything in return. He comes into work every day with a smile on his face, even when he’s having a bad day. He does a brilliant job at keeping the grounds in good condition and is a proud man when it comes to his work. Garry is nominated by his colleague for his influence in helping him learn and progress through the years - ‘Garry is my hero and I don’t think there is anyone in the entirety of the NHS who has a heart of gold as big as Garry’.

Lisa Rawcliffe

York

Lisa’s personal touch has earned her the nomination from a patient’s family as well as her positive, upbeat approach to her work. In a busy environment when time and resources are scarce Lisa has the awareness to look up and identify things going on around her – who might need help, who might want information, or who might simply want a few reassuring words or a hand to be held. What stood out to this family was how Lisa picked up on the little details with their Mum, who has dementia, and was recovering from hip surgery – her insecurities and fears, the need for communication and commands to be simple, the need to give her time rather than being rushed, and the need for reassuring smiles and encouraging words. ‘She was seeing beyond the bed number and diagnosis and trying to relate to my Mum the person.’

Elisha Goodall Walton

York

Elisha joined Ward 11 as a newly qualified nurse and has embraced the role even though she has been thrown into the most challenging situations. Due to sudden and unforeseen staffing issues because of a local Covid outbreak among the team, Elisha often found herself thrown into situations not many newly qualified nurses would experience so soon. She has not only had to support a full team and look after 50 percent of the ward on a very busy understaffed weekend shift, sadly due to sickness she repeated that dreaded situation again seven days later. Elisha took every single opportunity on board and with compassion and determination she was able to provide safe and effective care for surgical patients despite the huge staffing pressures. She is praised for the upbeat, happy and extremely hardworking attitude she has shown not only her patients, but colleagues and family.

Johanna Stones

York

Jo was nominated with ‘a heartfelt thank you’ from Emily, a patient who suffered two miscarriages before having a successful pregnancy all thanks to Jo’s outstanding care. From the outset, Jo texted her to offer support as her midwife after the first miscarriage, even though they had never met. After a second miscarriage once again Jo looked after her and took blood tests to try to see why this was happening. ‘From that point, Jo looked after me, my husband and our baby more than I could have hoped for.’ Jo helped her fight for medication when she experienced early pregnancy bleeding, was available for questions and reassurance when needed, and made sure Emily and her husband felt completely comfortable and informed throughout. Emily is partially deaf and Jo made sure her notes made this very clear for all future appointments and to check she understood everything.

Lucy Hayman

York

Lucy was leaving work for the day and came across a panic stricken mother trying to carry her unconscious daughter in very heavy rain. She had not realised that the A&E entrance had moved and was clearly struggling. Lucy stepped in to help and told her to wait there and she would go get help, after running to the current A&E entrance she shouted for help in the car park and then ran back to help the mother. By this point was exhausted and soaked from the rain. Lucy offered to carry her daughter to A&E, getting soaked herself and abandoning her personal belongings to do so.

Emergency Department

York

The team are nominated by a patient shocked at how busy it was in A&E at York after being sent by her GP. The patient witnessed first hand the extremely challenging conditions the team work under and watched as the nurses remained compassionate, professional and resilient with every patient, one after the other, again and again. Some patients were rude and challenging in their behaviour, and some were ignoring requests for relatives or friends to leave the department, meaning the nurses were constantly having to deal with this as well as their own job. Even though the staff were under so much pressure, they remained professional and kind, and kept the patient updated with the progress of her treatment. ‘York Hospital should be very proud of the amazing staff that they have working for them in the A&E Department.

Jenna Blogg

York

Jenna is nominated by a colleague who witnessed care that went above and beyond and was of the highest standard in just one week. The first occasion was during an on call case where a patient had suffered a stroke and communication was challenging. Jenna spent time with the patient explaining the procedure and giving reassurance. They were very anxious and struggling to tolerate the procedure, Jenna acted as advocate for the patient and stopped the procedure to allow them chance to rest and recover. With Jenna’s her help and support the patient was then successfully able to complete the procedure. Following this Jenna took care of a patient with a learning disability, and spent time learning about the patient. Jenna stayed past her shift time so she could stay with the patient during the procedure, allowing them to feel comfortable and have continuity of care. 

Ward 17

York

When a six month old baby boy was brought into the children’s ward with meningitis his mother understandably found it an incredibly frightening experience. Her Star Award nomination goes out to the whole team who she describes as ‘amazing’ when she felt helpless and overwhelmed, particularly as she was on her own leaving her husband and three year old daughter at home. The very challenging days involved medical procedures and tests for her son and she was struggling with no sleep and feeling emotionally exhausted. Praise goes to Nurse Sarah for her professional, personable and calm manner, who offered to look after her baby and set up a bed in a free room so that she could get some much-needed sleep even though she had her other jobs to do. From the doctors Dr Alex and Dr Luke, all the nurses, and the play team who offered their time so she could have a shower - ‘each and every one made a difference to an incredibly difficult situation which I won’t forget’.

Jess Sellers

York

Jess was nominated by a patient who had suffered a miscarriage the year before and was helped through this distressing time by Jess’s kind and caring words, particularly as her husband couldn’t be there because of Covid guidance. When she became pregnant again, Jess’ intuitive and sensitive manner helped her to feel more relaxed and her extremely personalised care throughout the pregnancy gave her confidence. At times she found it difficult to feel excited but Jess was able to make her smile at every appointment and put her anxieties into perspective. Without Jess’ care she feels she would have been more at risk of developing postnatal depression and believes Jess wholeheartedly wants women to experience excellent NHS care throughout their pregnancies. ‘She genuinely cares for the families she works with, wanting not only positive outcomes for birth, but to prepare women for life beyond’.

Leoni Shaw

York

Kris Minay

York

Eve Thrower

York

Fattorini Team

York

Matthew, a young man with complex learning disabilities and an extreme hospital phobia, needed dental treatment in the hospital so that he would not suffer ongoing pain. This was not a straightforward procedure and Karen Pearce, Learning Disability Liaison Nurse, enrolled the help of a wide cross-section of people who made a phenomenal effort to help.

Matthew needed several days of familiarisation in Ellerby’s, where he was sedated and transferred to the day unit for dental surgery. This entailed closing the restaurant to maintain Matthew’s dignity and minimise any distress.

The contribution made by all is a perfect example of working together with the patient at the centre of care to make the adjustments needed. It included Day Unit, Lynn Ellis and her team, Anaesthetist Steve Wasawo and his team, Ellerby’s breakfast team, and Security, Kevin Richardson and his team. This collaborative and sensitive approach to supporting Matthew made a potentially stressful situation for the family much easier to bear.

Melanie Shannon

Scarborough

Vaccination Hub Task and Finish Group

Trust-wide

Jason Angus

York

Margaret Grantham

York

Laura Barron

York

On Laura’s way home from a trip out with her mum she was first on scene at a road traffic collision where the vehicle was on fire. She immediately noticed there were two fatalities and alone Laura managed to pull a third male casualty from the burning car.

Laura asked her mum to alert emergency services and performed CPR and immediate life support as the car burst into flames. She performed CPR until emergency crews took over and stayed until almost midnight to assist crews with information and support before driving back home to York.

After arriving home at around 2am, Laura slept and came to work the following morning for 7am, despite the trauma and shock. Laura described the experience as the hardest task of her career.

RIS Project Team

Trust-wide

The RIS project was a large scale, complex project to create a fully electronic workflow for processing radiology requests.

The team are nominated for working tirelessly both in working hours and in their own time at weekends and leave to implement the project.  The team involved cross department working between radiology and digital information services managed by Tom Skidmore, Radiology PACS Manager, who was the project manager for this as well as doing his day job. All are praised for going above and beyond to get the project over the line and in the go live weeks an extreme amount of hours were put in to address and deal with very complex issues.

The team demonstrated the Trust values at the highest level in the way they have communicated and supported each other during what has been a very high stress project.

Amy Scott

York

Amy is described by colleagues as the mainstay of the team and ,while not in a clinical role, is a shining example of what an ambassador of the NHS should be.

She provides a guiding hand to the younger members and trains new recruits, while still managing to maintain her own significant workload.  Her work ethic is described as ‘beyond reproach’ and she works hard to make sure that all patients, including cancer patients, have the support and information they need as quickly as possible, to reduce their stress given the tribulations they are facing.

Recently the Coroner's Office emailed in thanks of Amy's constant prompt help and assistance and how she helps the bereaved. ‘Amy goes over and above to support everyone, especially the patients within the Respiratory Department', and I do not know what I would have done without her this past year’.

Ed Smith

Scarborough

Ed is often seen walking around the department ensuring things run efficiently and is known for his calm approach on shifts. He is nominated by colleagues for his care and compassion for a homeless patient who often ends up at the department with alcohol related issues. This visit was no exception and although it was noted that this patient should see a specialist, he would need to return another day. When he said he had nowhere to go Ed took over and spoke to him to assess the situation. Despite the patient’s ongoing issues and a lack of personal care, Ed made the relevant phone calls needed to find the best course of action for this patient, remaining professional and showing genuine concern. The patient was able to speak to who he needed on the phone and wait in the waiting room for the right care.