“Don’t let the pressure break you down, we will get there”
We spoke to Angela and Fahmida, practice development nurses from A&E, about their role, what they enjoy the most and highlights from the past year.
Angela has been in A&E at Whipps Cross for 11 years but her role in the past couple of years has been more focused on training, development and quality improvement for nurses in the department. Fahmida joined only about a month ago to support Angela in this crucial task.
What does a normal working day look like for you?
Every day is different. We obviously have to do our own training in order to be able to train others.
On Fridays we have teaching days for staff and we also work regularly on performance for staff and nurses, so for example band 7 nurses would work with band 5 and 6 nurses to let us know what their development needs are so we can better plan in the future.
Why is development important for your staff?
It’s all about safety. If our 140 members of staff aren’t developed, they would not be up to date with their knowledge and would not have the skills to be able to cope with the patients that are coming into the department, so the main thing is safety and quality of care too.
Every Friday is team day we have seven teams and every other month they have study day to be up to date with their training plus there’s other training that the Trust delivers as well, and courses throughout the year.
Recent highlights or proud moments?
We are proud of all staff because it’s such a hard time, there’s such low morale, but they are working really hard with the challenges and the amount of people that are coming through the doors.
They are coping really well with the increased pressure that we have, and they also work very well as teams.
Also, we recently had lots of new starters in the department, including additional nurses and more healthcare assistants.
Recruitment drive is going well, and we are hoping to get our numbers back from the ones that we lost pre and during the pandemic. This is crucial for the department because no matter how busy it is if you have the staff to cover the areas is less stress and we can share the workload much better.
What do you enjoy the most about your job?
Fahmida: I’ve only been in this role for a few weeks but I really enjoy working with staff on the floor and with students to develop their skills to manage care. There’s always someone there that can help you and that’s something I really like about my job.
Angela: we have newly qualified nurses that come to join us and it’s great to see them flourish and bloom after they’ve had all the development. You take care of them, guide them, give them the tools and skills they need and you see them up and running and that’s nice to see their confidence grow in what they do.
Is there anything in particular that you’d like to tell your staff?
That there’s still probably hard times to come but there’s always light at the end of the tunnel and we are going to giving them the skills to be able to get there and support them to reach their goals.
Keep on doing what you are doing, keep supporting each other and don’t let pressure break that down, we will get there.
What would you tell people that come to A&E?
Just to be patient with us because everyone is working as hard as they can. And we are always working to provide good quality safe care for them – and that’s our main aim here in the department and that’s what we are always hoping to achieve.