A Senior Healthcare Assistant at Hinchingbrooke Hospital has implemented a new initiative to help staff who have been moved to other wards during the pandemic.
Emma Flinders, who usually works in the Ophthalmology department at the hospital, is currently working on Bay Tree Ward after being redeployed. She felt quite anxious working in a completely different environment, so came up with the idea of wearing a badge to tell her colleagues that she is experienced in nursing, but new to the department.
Emma first mentioned her idea to Christine Burdett, Ward Manager on Bay tree, explaining that she was finding it slightly difficult to adjust and that by having these badges it would be helpful to redeployed staff and also the staff around her.
She said: “Although I’m not new to the hospital, I am new to the ward and being asked to get equipment or to find something was quite hard, as I didn’t know my way around the area. Having to explain myself was getting repetitive, along with feeling lost and anxious and it made me wonder how other staff must also be feeling. Hopefully these badges are a simple but effective way of highlighting that.”
The badges have been extremely popular and staff who are taking on new challenges in different areas of the hospital have been praising this idea explaining how much it has helped them to adjust.
She said: “I feel really pleased and proud of myself that this has gone from just an idea which has now been put into practice. I have seen a number of staff wearing these badges and I have asked them if it is making things any easier and the feedback I have received is fantastic.”
