Our story of love
O n Valentine’s Day this year, we launched Barts Hearts , a brand new recognition platform giving our staff the chance to call - out everyday acts of kindness . The ask was simple: send a heart to a deserving colleague and attach a short message explaining why. We hoped it would make staff feel more valued at work and support a culture of appreciati on .
S poiler alert – our people love it!
By every measure, Barts Hearts has been our single most successful campaign and has far surpassed our expectations. Day one saw over 6,000 hearts exchanged . Four months on , our people continue to spread the love.
Each day t he platform , which is available on the homepage of our intranet, is flooded with heartfelt thank you s . It is available to our all people including volunteers and those representing third-party contractors.
Messages are sent at weekends and overnight. It truly transcends roles and sites.
Louise Hicks, our deputy director of nursing , said:
“Getting a Barts Heart is really special and spending time writing the short note reminds you how important it is to value others. Reading the messages between people and teams is a pure prescription of joy!”
You can read a selection of messages at the bottom of this story.
Barts Hearts has become an important part of ever yday life here at Barts Health, and it’s even caught the eye of others. NHS Employers featured us in a recent case study and the Nursing Standard wrote about it this month.
Our recognition programme was co-designed with our people and introducing such an ambitious programme means tweaks will need to be made on our journey.
We’ve refined the list of rewards that colleagues can choose from when they receive five hearts and will be introducing some new measures to make sure as many people as possible can claim an item.
Barts Hearts is an in ternal platform for our people and one element of a wider recognition programme funded by Barts Charity our hospital's charity.
We have a place for patients, carers and colleagues to give that extra special thank you for going above and beyond through our Barts Health Heroes awards .
If you know of teams or individuals who are deserving of your nomination, make their day and submit a nomination.
The deadline to submit for the February 2025 is 30 September, entries received after that date will go forward to the 2026 awards.
Messages from Barts Hearts
“You are the definition of kindness. You continue to amaze us with your hard work and dedication.”
“You were amazing yesterday when we had a challenging sad death on the ward. You showed so much care and concern to the patient, the relatives and your junior colleagues. I find your nursing inspirational. x”
“Thank you for always looking after the department with the ice creams :) Much appreciated.”
“Thanks for always being on hand to pick up tasks at short notice. Without your good attitude and forever support, we would not be able to deliver our work on time. You are amazing!”