Linda Upton, Safeguarding Children Specialist Nurse and Patricia Cole, Senior Medical Secretary in the ENT department, have been celebrated as the joint winners of East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust’s monthly staff award, with a presentation at the recent Trust Board meeting. Linda and Patricia were presented with a certificate by ESHT Chairman, David Clayton-Smith.
Linda Upton, Safeguarding Children Specialist Nurse – ESHT Chairman, David Clayton-Smith – Patricia Cole, Senior Medical Secretary ENT
Linda Upton was nominated by colleague Sue Curties from Safeguarding Children. Sue said: “Linda is highly committed, conscientious and enthusiastic. I consider her in two words to be a Change Agent. Linda has worked as a midwife delivering many babies and supporting families and staff.
“More recently Linda has committed her career to Safeguarding Children or Child Protection as it was previously known. She works as a specialist nurse and has contributed tremendously in the past to our practice today, developing policies, safeguarding training and child protection supervision. This month in particular Linda has gone the extra mile, supporting the team and child protection cases on the ward. The work is distressing, and although I know that the subject matter can be extremely distressing, Linda always asks others if they are alright?”
Patricia Cole was nominated by colleague Nikki Higby in Clinical Administration. Nikki said: “Patricia has worked tirelessly during an extremely difficult couple of months whilst her colleague has been on long-term sick leave. In addition the ENT department has seen an increase in clinical activity which in turn has increased the already heavy workload of the medical secretaries. In her colleague’s absence, Patricia has solely managed the office efficiently, trained bank staff who have been brought in to help and additionally supported the new administrative assistant in the team. Throughout this period Patricia has remained cheerful, always helpful and flexible in her approach. She is an extremely valued member of the medical secretary team.”