One Team Award winner Louise Almeida. Image: Ralph Hodgson
The annual One Team Awards, which are part of UNISON’s One Team campaign, give members a chance to nominate colleagues who deserve recognition for their contribution to the NHS team – and put them in the running to win £500 in prize vouchers.
After narrowing down the selection from 800 applications, this year’s awards panel selected three winners: Louise Almeida, Agata Choma and Frank Murt.
Beyond a band 3
Louise (pictured above) has been a medical PA for a local community mental health centre in Brighton for the last three years. She’s responsible for all of the admin involved in processing clinic letters.
However, her job also involves taking difficult calls from patients, including people in mental health crisis who are struggling between their appointments. Louise’s ability to do this is what inspired her colleague Jasmine to nominate her for the award.
In the nomination, Jasmine describes how Louise handles these “intense interactions” with “care and consideration, making sure each patient feels heard, seen and understood.”
Jasmine adds that that this goes beyond what most would do in a band 3 administrative position.
Louise says: “I’m not a clinician, but I do have to listen to people and calm them down. I’ve picked up skills to comfort people and make sure that they feel understood.”
While the work can be challenging, she really enjoys being able to help people who need support with their mental health. Thankfully, she also feels supported to do this. “I’ve got an amazing manager who really understands wellbeing and, because we’re at the mental health centre, we get mindfulness sessions too.”
One of a team of 10, Louise is known for being “hardworking and thoughtful” with an “attitude, humbleness and work ethic” that are “exceptional and rare”.
On hearing this, she feels embarrassed. “My whole office are amazing. People don’t realise what comes with admin until they do it. People think it’s just entering data or sending letters, but there’s so much that you have to learn.
“When I first started in this job, I didn’t know anything about all of the medications, so I’ve had to learn all of the terminology on the job, as I go. It was overwhelming at first.”
Louise says admin staff “don’t always get the right recognition”, but she is encouraged by the award. “It makes me want to help more people.”
Inspirational
One Team Award winner Agata Choma. Image: Julie Broadfoot
Agata Choma (pictured) is an NHS learning and education support supervisor in Glasgow. She’s spent the last 17 years working in a learning and education team, with the last seven as a supervisor for six administrators. She was nominated for the award by one of the people she supervises, who described her as “inspirational”, with the “patience of a saint” and as someone who makes her “want to give that extra bit to my role”.
Agata is surprised to receive the award, because in her words, her job involves “just trying to keep everyone going each day”.
“I like working with people,” she adds. “Everyone should feel like a valued member of the team, especially in a small team. This is important for us to do our jobs, and to make this place enjoyable for everyone. It’s important to be approachable and to support people with the guidance and support that they need.”
Agata’s team administers large systems, an eLearning platform and an appraisal system which is used for recording staff personal development plans.
“Though myself and my colleagues are not frontline, without us staff wouldn’t have access to their training or be able to access all of the opportunities that are there. It’s rewarding knowing that we are contributing to other colleagues’ training so that they can provide better care for patients.”
She says the One Team Awards are important because “it shows the admin staff who are behind everything.
“Even if you think about all the nursing staff and the bank nursing staff, we’re the team who provide them with access to training. These back-office roles and the admin staff who provide access to eLearning platforms are important, and it’s good they are being recognised as part of the NHS.”
A meticulous attention to detail
Whenever someone has an operation at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool, it’s Frank’s responsibility as sterile services admin coordinator to ensure that the surgeons have the right instruments.
Frank was nominated for the award by his manager, Nitin, who described him as having “meticulous attention to detail”, which he used to develop a tracking system that improved the efficiency of instrument availability for emergency procedures and reduced delays in surgeries.
It takes a lot of small people to keep things ticking over
“People order kits of instruments for all the operations, and it’s the responsibility of my team to make sure they’re logged on the system and they’re all correct and all the numbers are on them. This is because, if anything goes wrong in an operation, there’s got to be credible evidence they used the right items,” Frank says.
“Everybody’s got a role to play in the journey to the operating theatre.”
Frank feels surprised, yet proud, to win the award. “All the doctors on the frontline get the plaudits, but the NHS is a fast-paced organisation and it takes a lot of small people to keep things ticking over. It’s only when you’re involved in it that you realise how seamless it all is.”
The nomination also describes Frank as approachable, and as “a strong advocate for mental health and wellbeing”.
Before working in this job, Frank worked as a volunteer counsellor for eight years and has also worked for victim support.
“People just talk to me,” he says. “It’s always just been like that. I don’t do these things deliberately, but people talk to me about their lives.”
Truly deserving winners
Maura Price, chair of the operational services occupational group, says: “The three winners really exemplified what it means to be part of One Team for the NHS. Frank’s commitment to his work to ensure that surgical equipment is processed, tracked, and delivered efficiently really highlighted how non-patient facing roles directly contribute to providing safe and quality patient care.
“Louise’s dedication to her work and her colleagues really shone through in her nomination and highlighted her compassion as a vital part of her role as a link between patients and the rest of the healthcare team.
“Agata’s patience and support towards her colleagues was truly inspiring and her colleagues’ respect for her really came through in her nomination.
“All three are truly deserving winners. Congratulations to them all.”
