Wardlines newsletter - Autumn 2012 - University College London ...
Wardlines newsletter - Autumn 2012 - University College London ... Wardlines newsletter - Autumn 2012 - University College London ...
Editorial Sara Goldman, Editor Welcome to the autumn Wardlines and thank you to all those who joined in our busy summer of sport. I have to say a special well done and thank you to Shaheena Bashir, Aileen Castell, Amnique Dharwar, Rajvinder Dharwar, Sheila Hegarty, Grainne Hegarty, Darren Kaye, Jo Kaye, Gwen Kemp, Jeanette Kemp, Rob McDonnell, Vaishali Pratap, Sarah Sharp and Katia Yiassoumi for stepping up to the post Olympic 26 mile walk and raising over £5,000 for the Unit. Well done and thank you also to Nicola Sell for her Ridgeway Walk in memory of William Sell, Nick Poole’s Seaford Half Marathon, Brian Kotz’ Trek to Utrecht, Dr Andres Virchis’ Alp D’Huez (read about both in this Wardlines), Simon Titcombe’s London to Paris Cycle, Bailey, Wesley and Jay Kelly, Gill and Netchaa Harvey’s Sunlight Colourthon, David Stafferton’s Greensand Ridge Walk, Andrew Wood’s Olympic Distance Triathlon and Michelle Reid’s Thames Path Challenge. Thank you for the donations to celebrate the 60th birthdays of Vivienne Linton and Caroline Evans and the 80th birthday of Leslie Ableson. It is only through funds raised by all these events and by your donations that we continue improving our patients’ experience within the Unit. Our Wish List can be viewed on our website (www.uclh.nhs.uk/LLU) and donation information is on the back page. Thanks again to Bluefin Solutions and the Kevin Steeds Lymphoma Fund for buying a new apheresis machine for the apheresis service housed in the Cancer Centre. We hope you will continue to support our Unit at Christmas with our lovely new cards - note the lower price, and raffle - with great prizes once again. We look forward to seeing you at the annual Christmas party. If you have undertaken a challenge this year, including the London Marathon, the Stadia Trek and the 10K, please come along to a medal presentation at the party. Please make me aware of this when you RSVP. If you are inspired by any of the activities in Wardlines, or would like to organise your own we would love to hear from you. We can keep you in touch with news and events via email - just send us your email address. Lastly, if receiving Wardlines has inconvenienced you in any way, please accept our apologies. Haematology Life by Stephen Rowley, Lead Cancer Nurse UCLH, Divisional Cancer Nurse Haematology Whilst shopping recently I was reminded of the power of good customer care. I lazily asked for the location of an item and I was given a personal escort complete with friendly chat all the way to the cold food section. I wouldn’t say it made my day but it certainly made a difference. It got me reflecting on how much time successful organisations must spend listening to what customers want and value. And then, more impressively, actually ensuring all their staff get it right, everytime. Organisations on the high street like this stand out, and we want to stand out too at UCLH. We are certainly more aware than ever before that whilst we are confident in the high standards of clinical care we provide, we have some work to do in ensuring patients feel cared for, not just by nurses, but by all staff and at all times. Sometimes getting the small things right can make a huge difference. So it was a pleasure to spend an evening meeting with the Haematology Patient Support Group recently. And I have to say I was very impressed. What I saw was a group that evolved over time and had become skilled at two things. Reminding us as staff to look at things through patient eyes more. And more pleasing was seeing a Patient Support Group doing exactly that...supporting each other. Fortunately, most staff will never know what its like to suffer a debilitating illness like cancer or thalassaemia. It was evident that the opportunity for patients and ex patients to discuss issues of treatment and dealing with life after treatment finishes was really important and of practical as well as emotional support. We discussed how the group could raise its profile to enable more patients to attend and we will provide some charitable funding to help facilitate this. Working with patients properly is clearly going to be key to providing world class services and it seems one of the challenges is how to engage with patients and their families in different ways - and as this group is showing, how to help patients find good peer support when they require it. Lots to do. On a completely different note, I thought a photo of the latest arrival to the Rowley household would be an improvement on my normal mugshot. I’m sure you will agree. Baby Jake was born two weeks ago and is dong great. Education Fund Jonathan Hanbury, Ward Manager T13 North and Siobhan McGuckin, Macmillan Lymphoma CNS have completed their MSc Dissertations in Leadership and Cancer Care. Jonathan, centre and Siobhan, right are pictured with Jon Derbyshire, Ward Manager T16 South. The Ivan & Esther Kapelus, the Lynne Horsman and the Julia Thornton Education Funds and Tony Sacker support education for Haematology nurses via the Unit’s Education Fund. 2 • Autumn 2012 • Wardlines
Complementary Therapy By Elaine Charlesworth, Senior Complementary Therapist The complementary therapy team along with others such as the welfare and benefits team have now become part of the larger Macmillan Support and Information Service in the new UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre. The new facilities the centre provides have allowed us to expand the range of services on offer and the number of therapies we can deliver to individuals. Haematology patients often have very extended in-patient hospital stays and even though there is scope to expand our activities in the new cancer centre the team do not want to take their focus away from those patients receiving treatment on the in-patient wards. The complementary therapy team are continuing their work with patients and relatives on the wards, visiting patients who can receive therapy sessions in their hospital beds. The therapies are as popular as ever and we have strived to maintain a consistent service on the wards during and since the move over to the new cancer centre. Having two therapy rooms to work from in the new cancer centre has enabled the team to take on four complementary therapy volunteers which has been an exciting new departure for us. The volunteers are all fully qualified and experienced therapists looking to give something back to their community and use their skills to great benefit. They each come in for a half day a week and are able to deliver three to four therapy sessions each visit. In return for the time they are offering they gain the valuable experience of working as a therapist in the NHS. Each volunteer is mentored by one member of the complementary therapy team. This has involved quite a bit of training and support in the first few weeks and has sometimes meant that the team were temporarily taken away from their work on the wards. We are now seeing the benefits of the initial support given to the volunteers as all the therapists are confidently delivering therapies now, working alongside the team in the second therapy room. Our new therapists also enable us to see more patients and carers and deliver more therapy sessions. They are a great asset to the team as I am sure anyone who has had the benefit of a session with one of them would agree. One of our complementary therapy volunteers, Caroline, has already had to leave to take up paid employment as a complementary therapist at another Trust. The experience she gained here I am sure will have helped her to obtain this position which she described as her dream job. Recently we were able to recruit two volunteers who had initially impressed us who will now have the opportunity to join the team and take the number of our volunteer therapists up to five. The Cancer Centre offers new opportunities for the complementary therapy team to become involved in delivering group sessions. The new centre has dedicated space for group activities which will enable a range of new activities to take place. One of these is the H.O.P.E. (Helping Overcome Problems Effectively) programme. This involves seven sessions aimed at enabling patients to focus on their personal strengths to provide useful strategies for management of the day to day emotional and practical impact of living with and beyond cancer. This programme, which began on September 10th is being co facilitated by Victoria, a member of the complementary therapy team. It is wonderful to see the complementary therapy team expanding and we are pleased to be able to offer more therapy sessions and be a part of new and exciting developments. Patients’ Art Exhibition Katie Pomklova A Patients’ Art corridor in the new UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre will feature art from patients being treated in the UCH Tower and The Cancer Centre. Patients are invited to submit a piece of artwork for the inaugural patients’ art exhibition on the theme of Seasons in the following medium: Photography, Drawing, Painting. The size of artwork is to be A3 (420 x 297 mm 16.5 x 11.7 in). The exhibition is to be held on Thursday 21st February 2013. The works will be exhibited in the patients’ art corridor which is located on the lower ground floor of the Cancer Centre. Closing submission date is Monday 21 Jan 2013 by 5pm. Forms available from T12,T13,T14 and T16 and the Macmillan Support and Information centre. This is the first project by the Patients’ Art Committee, a new group for patients developing visual arts activities. Haematology Patient Support Group The HPSG is a patient and staff led group for all haematology patients offering information and support within a relaxed and empathetic environment which meets every two months. The two hour sessions include a speaker. Recent speakers include - Stephen Rowley who gave a haematology overview and talked about fundraising, Dr Neil Rabin who talked about current drug trials and Dr Sosie Kassab, director of complementary cancer services from the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine spoke about the benefits offered by homeopathy. This is followed by the more informal second hour which offers mutual support for like-minded people. Some patients who have found the group particularly useful are those with longer term involvement with UCH, others with no local support group and red cell patients. Patients can be having active treatment or be in remission for any length of time. The current age ranges from 25 up to 83. For information about joining the group and future meetings, please contact Sheila Hegarty, Counsellor, Haematology Unit UCLH on 020 3447 9152. Wardlines • Autumn 2012 • 3
- Page 1: Wardlines Newsletter Autumn 2012 Th
- Page 5 and 6: 2013 Jordan Trek In April 2013 my p
- Page 7 and 8: My Marathon Experience by Wayne Val
Editorial<br />
Sara Goldman, Editor<br />
Welcome to the autumn<br />
<strong>Wardlines</strong> and thank<br />
you to all those who<br />
joined in our busy<br />
summer of sport.<br />
I have to say a special well done and thank you to Shaheena<br />
Bashir, Aileen Castell, Amnique Dharwar, Rajvinder Dharwar,<br />
Sheila Hegarty, Grainne Hegarty, Darren Kaye, Jo Kaye, Gwen<br />
Kemp, Jeanette Kemp, Rob McDonnell, Vaishali Pratap, Sarah<br />
Sharp and Katia Yiassoumi for stepping up to the post Olympic<br />
26 mile walk and raising over £5,000 for the Unit.<br />
Well done and thank you also to Nicola Sell for her Ridgeway<br />
Walk in memory of William Sell, Nick Poole’s Seaford Half<br />
Marathon, Brian Kotz’ Trek to Utrecht, Dr Andres Virchis’ Alp<br />
D’Huez (read about both in this <strong>Wardlines</strong>), Simon Titcombe’s<br />
<strong>London</strong> to Paris Cycle, Bailey, Wesley and Jay Kelly, Gill and<br />
Netchaa Harvey’s Sunlight Colourthon, David Stafferton’s<br />
Greensand Ridge Walk, Andrew Wood’s Olympic Distance<br />
Triathlon and Michelle Reid’s Thames Path Challenge. Thank<br />
you for the donations to celebrate the 60th birthdays of<br />
Vivienne Linton and Caroline Evans and the 80th birthday of<br />
Leslie Ableson.<br />
It is only through funds raised by all these events and by your<br />
donations that we continue improving our patients’ experience<br />
within the Unit. Our Wish List can be viewed on our website<br />
(www.uclh.nhs.uk/LLU) and donation information is on the<br />
back page. Thanks again to Bluefin Solutions and the<br />
Kevin Steeds Lymphoma Fund for buying a new apheresis<br />
machine for the apheresis service housed in the Cancer<br />
Centre.<br />
We hope you will continue to support our Unit at Christmas<br />
with our lovely new cards - note the lower price, and raffle -<br />
with great prizes once again.<br />
We look forward to seeing you at the annual Christmas party.<br />
If you have undertaken a challenge this year, including the<br />
<strong>London</strong> Marathon, the Stadia Trek and the 10K, please come<br />
along to a medal presentation at the party. Please make me<br />
aware of this when you RSVP.<br />
If you are inspired by any of the activities in <strong>Wardlines</strong>, or<br />
would like to organise your own we would love to hear from<br />
you. We can keep you in touch with news and events via<br />
email - just send us your email address. Lastly, if receiving<br />
<strong>Wardlines</strong> has inconvenienced you in any way, please accept<br />
our apologies.<br />
Haematology Life<br />
by Stephen Rowley, Lead Cancer Nurse UCLH,<br />
Divisional Cancer Nurse Haematology<br />
Whilst shopping recently I was reminded of<br />
the power of good customer care. I lazily<br />
asked for the location of an item and I was<br />
given a personal escort complete with<br />
friendly chat all the way to the cold food<br />
section. I wouldn’t say it made my day but<br />
it certainly made a difference. It got me<br />
reflecting on how much time successful<br />
organisations must spend listening to what<br />
customers want and value. And then, more<br />
impressively, actually ensuring all their staff get it right, everytime.<br />
Organisations on the high street like this stand out, and we want<br />
to stand out too at UCLH. We are certainly more aware than ever<br />
before that whilst we are confident in the high standards of<br />
clinical care we provide, we have some work to do in ensuring<br />
patients feel cared for, not just by nurses, but by all staff and at<br />
all times. Sometimes getting the small things right can make a<br />
huge difference.<br />
So it was a pleasure to spend an evening meeting with the<br />
Haematology Patient Support Group recently. And I have to say I<br />
was very impressed. What I saw was a group that evolved over time<br />
and had become skilled at two things. Reminding us as staff to look<br />
at things through patient eyes more. And more pleasing was seeing<br />
a Patient Support Group doing exactly that...supporting each other.<br />
Fortunately, most staff will never know what its like to suffer a<br />
debilitating illness like cancer or thalassaemia. It was evident that<br />
the opportunity for patients and ex patients to discuss issues of<br />
treatment and dealing with life after treatment finishes was really<br />
important and of practical as well as emotional support. We<br />
discussed how the group could raise its profile to enable more<br />
patients to attend and we will provide some charitable funding to<br />
help facilitate this. Working with patients properly is clearly going<br />
to be key to providing world class services and it seems one of the<br />
challenges is how to engage with patients and their families in<br />
different ways - and as this group is showing, how to help patients<br />
find good peer support when they require it. Lots to do.<br />
On a completely different note, I thought a photo of the latest<br />
arrival to the Rowley household would be an improvement on my<br />
normal mugshot. I’m sure you will agree. Baby Jake was born two<br />
weeks ago and is dong great.<br />
Education Fund<br />
Jonathan Hanbury, Ward Manager<br />
T13 North and Siobhan McGuckin,<br />
Macmillan Lymphoma CNS have<br />
completed their MSc<br />
Dissertations in Leadership and<br />
Cancer Care. Jonathan, centre and<br />
Siobhan, right are pictured with<br />
Jon Derbyshire, Ward Manager<br />
T16 South.<br />
The Ivan & Esther Kapelus, the Lynne Horsman and the Julia<br />
Thornton Education Funds and Tony Sacker support education for<br />
Haematology nurses via the Unit’s Education Fund.<br />
2 • <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2012</strong> • <strong>Wardlines</strong>
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