AWARD WINNERS
Winner of the Unsung Hero Clinical Award
Winner of the Clinical Educator of the Year Award
Holly Slyne is an Infection Prevention Nurse and has been nominated for two Best Possible Care Awards. Her main role is to promote cleanliness around the hospital and teaching staff about how to keep patients safe from infections. Holly says: “I think I’ve got a wonderful job. I love it. It’s so varied and I do different things every day.”
Dr Christopher Frerk has been consultant anaesthetist at NGH for 23 years and is just one of 36 consultants that are part of the Anaesthetics, Critical Care and Pain Management department at the hospital. After being nominated for a Best Possible Care award he expressed his surprise. “It really is unexpected but it feels rather nice. Not many people will have taken the time to nominate so it is nice that people have done so.” Chris’ role comprises of six sessions of anaesthetics a week, mostly for patients about to undergo head and neck surgery. Another part of his role is teaching, something which he enjoys. “I have always liked learning and teaching. I have identified, in my trainers, the things that I thought were good characteristics and I have tried to incorporate them into my own practice.” Alongside his general duties, Chris believes that safety is very important and spends some of his time overseeing medical equipment. “I look after the committee that buys the medical equipment and I am interested in safety within the NHS and healthcare. I try to do what I can to help the hospital and make it as safe as it can be.” Outside of work, Chris likes to do many things, including dancing and climbing. “I like to learn anything new and try to get better at it. It’s all about learning and developing. I did Northampton Strictly and I’ve kept dancing. I find it infuriating that I can’t do it properly but I still do it because I want to get better.” His philosophy in life is to take things slowly. “I’m a day at a time type of person. Do stuff today as well as you can.” When asked what he enjoyed most about his role, Chris responded with: “Everything. I enjoy it all. I do enjoy being at work and doing the day-today anaesthetics. Especially working with the theatre team. What’s not to like?”
Holly Slyne
In her role, Holly works with many people and it is just one of the things that she enjoys about her job. “I love being a nurse and you get to work with different departments and people within the trust. Everyone is so friendly and supportive.” She was surprised and shocked to be nominated for two awards. “For someone in the trust to nominate you it is quite humbling, it’s really kind. I’m just doing my job so in a way if fells lovely for people to think that it’s a good thing. It’s also good for infection prevention to be recognised because it is important.” Recently there has been a new director of nursing and Holly feels that this has improved the service. “Carolyn has taught us to work with doctors to make practice better and patients too. It has made it easier and simpler for staff to make the right choice to care for patients. That has been uplifting and wonderful to change the way you think about things.” Not only are the Best Possible Care Awards taking place, the infection prevention staff are holding some of their own, said Holly. “I think it’s nice to celebrate good work and help share the feeling of loveliness.”
Holly is always positive, often volunteers to take a task on, always looks for ways to improve patient care or a process and is constantly looking for new innovations to try. Her first answer is never ‘No’, it is ‘Let me think about it’ and she usually comes up with a solution that works.
18 ❘ Insight
Dr Chris Frerk
Dr Frerk introduced continuous capnograph monitoring to ensure patie are breathing clearly when return from day theatres. tailors the training for reco practitioners and operati department practitioners meet individual needs an always available to answ queries, even if it is out his working hours.