It’s all part of the national awareness campaign Fab Change Week (November 13-17), organised by the Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff.
The week encourages teams and individuals to make a pledge, big or small, to help make a difference within the NHS.
Staff are encouraged to upload their pledges to the academy’s website to help highlight and share best practice, service improvements, kindness and compassion.
At United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) around 150 fab pledges have rolled in from staff over the past few months, including one from Clinical Education Nurse, Sam McCarthy-Phull, who came up with a novel idea to help those who might struggle with their finances this Christmas time.
Sam has mobilised more than 100 teams across the Trust to donate goodie-filled Christmas hampers to foodbanks across the county, kicking off with advent calendars to be delivered in time for December.
From November 14 to December 14 staff are being asked to donate items to the hampers which will then be delivered to local foodbanks in good time for the festive period.
“ULHT staff show kindness and compassion to our patients every single day, and I just thought this would be another way of showing how we can support people in the local community at this time of year,” said Sam.
“I’m absolutely delighted and overwhelmed by the response so far, the staff are really getting behind it and we’ve put together some lovely hampers already. I’m very proud of them all.”
The Trust’s Board of Directors have also been making their pledges. Director of Finance Karen Brown said: “As a fairly new member of staff, my pledge was to visit more clinical areas.
“I’ve been really impressed by each team I’ve visited, which show examples of our staff striving for excellence in patient care, compassion in the way they work and innovative ways to change daily practice.”
Over at Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS), the pledges have also been coming in thick and fast.
So far they have included improving dementia education for staff, promoting services and introducing Pets as Therapy dogs into hospital wards.
Mary Kindred, who works in LCHS’s operations centre, has pledged to continue litter picks along riverside footpaths near Beech House, Lincoln, to improve the environment for staff and the public.
Mary estimates she has collected approximately 1,100 bags of plastic bottles, glass bottles and aluminium cans from hedges, footpaths and picnic areas since joining the trust in November 2015.
“There was so much litter along the river that I started to pick up a few pieces as I walked by,” explained Mary.
“I wanted to improve the environment for anyone walking by, particularly staff who spend time outside during breaks and time out. Since then I’ve made lots of contacts from other people based along the river who are happy to do the same and have now started to recycle other things where I can in the office, such as old uniform bags.”
Meanwhile at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) staff have devised a random act of kindness bingo board. Players draw an activity that they must complete in order to make a little ‘fab change’ to someone’s day.
These include introducing themselves by name to a new person, asking someone if they’re ok or talking to a patient about their experience of using mental health and learning disability services.
Visit the academy website here – https://fabnhsstuff.net/ – to view all of the pledges made for Fab Change Week and get involved to support the event.