Staff at West Hertfordshire hospitals NHS Trust celebrate award success

Staff at West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust (WHHT) have had plenty to celebrate recently as workers across the trust have won or been shortlisted for a bumper crop of awards.

The celebrations kicked off when the trust landed a prestigious Nursing Times Summit and Workforce Award for ‘Best Workplace for Learning and Development’ in the nursing workforce

under 1,500 category.

The award recognised the success of a scheme where retired nurses returned in educator roles, providing support to junior nursing staff at an incredibly challenging time for the trust.

WHHT were also finalists in the ‘Best Wellbeing and Staff Engagement Initiative’ category for their work in developing a programme for personal and professional development through

clinical supervision.

The programme promotes wellbeing and mental health safeguarding, while supporting safe practice and is a boost for recruitment and retention.

The trust continued its success as they were shortlisted twice as finalists in the national Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards.

Its Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff network, Connect BAME, engaged and supported the trust’s BAME workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They ensured that staff had access to instant support and a safe space to address race related and other issues.

The trust’s trauma and orthopaedic department were also shortlisted in the ‘Driving efficiency through technology’ award.

They received a ‘highly commended’ for their initiative which uses technology to enable clinicians to communicate digitally and see patients virtually.

Additionally, two of the trust’s clinical coding officers, Andrea Cardozo and Molly Deely, have ranked top 10 in the country after achieving fantastic results in the National Coding Exam.

To top off the week, WHHT’s chief nurse, Tracey Carter, received her MBE at Windsor Castle from the Princess Royal.

"These accolades illustrate that West Herts is at the forefront of best practice and innovation and shows just how hard they work to continuously improve patient care and staff experience.”