Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust celebrate "great" nurses and midwives
They combined two international days of honour
The Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust spent yesterday (Tuesday 11th May) honouring the work their nurses and midwives do.
Today (12th) is International Nurses Day, with the International Day of the Midwife being honoured last week, so the Trust did their own celebration by combining the two days,
They thanked them for their hard work, especially during the pandemic.
At the beginning of this year, Salisbury District Hospital was under "intense pressure" as the number of positive Covid-19 patients hit peak levels.
Fast forward a few months and they have now brought in-patient levels into single figures.
In honour of this special day, we asked a couple of midwives and nurses at Salisbury District Hospital why they started working for the NHS.
Midwife Lizzie Sexton:
"I'd always wanted to be a midwife since I was about five years old. I qualified in 1992 and then worked for about 15 years and then actually led midwifery for a little while and then came back doing a return to practice course about 3 years ago because I always missed it, it's a real privilege to be a part of a family's journey and welcoming new babies into the world."
Katie Ransby, nurse:
"I went into nursing because I love it, I love people I like to be involved with people I want to make a difference to people's lives and I have remained in the NHS because it's a really nice environment to work in, it's very busy, there's a lot of team work and you get a lot of satisfaction and reward from the job."
Midwife Scarlett Leahy:
"I originally actually wanted to be a doctor but realised that you don't actually spend as much time with patients and communicating with their families so the autonomy we have as midwives we can prescribe, we can administer medications, we can do a lot on our own backs, mixed with the fact you get to spend a lot of time with women is something that really appealed to me and I haven't looked back since."
CELEBRATING STAFF
To mark the occasion for the nurses and midwives, the trust did a number of things throughout the day.
These include a pop up display in the Art Care boardroom showing historic collections Nursing and Midwifery.
The items, from the 1760s to present day, included letters, rare film footage and stories.
Poems have also been created by Martin Figura who used the words of staff from the Hospital.
They were commissioned especially for this special day and you can catch them both here:
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Stacey Hunter penned an open letter to the staff:
"Nursing and midwifery teams are at the beating heart of the hospital, supporting and sharing the joy of new life, caring for patients of all ages, with breaks and fractures, complex and chronic conditions and terminal diagnosis. It is with nurses and midwives that we say hello to new loved ones and say our goodbyes.
Whether it's on the Labour Ward or an antenatal clinic, in the Emergency Department or on the Spinal Unit, in general medicine or surgery, infection control or research, quality assurance, training or planning, looking after the young or the old, you demonstrate the core attributes of compassion and commitment on a daily basis.
As nurses and midwives you have shared in the highs and the lows of life, holding a hand, giving a hug, radiating warmth and security, supporting our patients and mothers towards the best possible outcomes. You are skilled professionals delivering modern healthcare in challenging times.
I, the whole Board and management team respect and value everything you do."