International Nurses’ Day falls on 12 May each year, to coincide with Florence Nightingale’s birthday. This is an opportunity to celebrate our nurses and highlight their positive contribution to Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust and beyond.
At Gateshead Health, we have a range of nurses working in different departments across the Trust as well as key departments that work closely with nurses to deliver our services.
Rebecca Storey, a Community District Nurse based at the Blaydon Primary Care Centre comments on her role:
‘I was one of the first nurses to complete the apprenticeship route to do the district nursing course which went over 19 months based at Teesside University. Since qualifying I’ve been based at Blaydon.”
Community nurses are the link between the hospital and the community to try to prevent hospital admissions or patients coming back to the hospital once discharged. The role of community nurses is to visit patients in the community to promote their health and well-being as well as treat them. The team has a caseload of ten patients who are seen in the morning, following a handover they are then visited again depending on their need.
For International Nurses Day, Rebecca said:
I’d like to wish my colleagues Happy International Nurses Day, they all work very hard and I hope they take this time to reflect and take some self-care for themselves
Rebecca Storey, Community District Nurse
Laura Henry, Ward Manager for Ward 27 has overall responsibility for the ward and the staff. Her day-to-day job involves ensuring that the ward is safe for patients, staffing is adequate, and liaising with surgical teams to review patients.
Laura is a trained nurse and works directly with patients on ward 27 post-surgery. The team also has patients coming from A&E who need to be cared for. As well as this, Laura is an assessor for student nurses to offer support to newly qualified staff.
I would like to say a big thank you to my team and all the staff at Gateshead Health who I know work incredibly hard every day in sometimes challenging circumstances. Happy International Nurses Day.
Laura Henry, Ward Manager
Tissue Viability Nurses, Nicole Tshuma and Gemma Middleton gave an insight into their role.
Nicole works in the community visiting patients and providing nurses and the community with wound care, help to heal pressure sores, and general advice. Gemma carries out the same role but within the hospital and visits wards and patients daily.
They also carry out educational work around pressure prevention to reduce patient harm in the hospital and community. The main part of the role is to support staff with wound care and complex wound healing.
A typical day involved going through referrals and prioritise which patients need to be seen. Nicole comments on her day. “I will go out onto the wards and provide support, access and validate any pressure damage. We would come back to the office and document it to identify areas of improvement or further investigations around pressure ulcers.”
For support in the community, Nicole describes her day, “I come to the office to plan my visits, and check emails. I then plan my visits with community nurses, and they usually start at 10:00 am. As well as looking after patients, I help with education and prevention of ulcers.”
Nicole and Gemma share why they love being a nurse at Gateshead Health:
I’ve been a nurse for 20 years and come from a background of nurses; it is something that I have always wanted to do. Happy International Nurses Day.
I love being a nurse because it makes a difference to patient’s hospital stay, preventing long length of stay through pressure ulcers and making sure they are getting a good experience and reducing their harm
Nicole Tshuma and Gemma Middleton, Specialist Nurses
Giordana Famoso, Gynae Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist graduated in Italy in 2016 and has been a nurse in the UK since 2017, starting her journey in endoscopy.
The role of a gynaeoncology nurse is to support patients throughout their gynaecological cancer treatment, utilising communication skills to provide high-quality holistic care. Giordana takes us through a typical day, “Every day is different, you never know what you’re going to encounter. Aside from planned clinics (new patients, holistic needs assessments, and follow-ups), we support patients on the ward and deal with patients ’calls for advice.
Clinical nurse specialists are faced with challenging situations that can be emotional. The nurses vouch to advocate for the patients and be their voice when they do not have the strength to.
I love working alongside highly skilled multidisciplinary professionals and, most of all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to support, help, and make a positive impact on patients going through one of the most difficult times of their lives
Giordana Famoso, Gynae Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist
Happy International Nurses Day to all our nurses at Gateshead Health and beyond who go the extra mile to provide the best patient care to our communities.