Paula Betterton – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Estates & Ancillary

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

I would like to nominate Paula Betterton for an Unsung Hero Award for her outstanding contribution to the Facilities Team at West London NHS Trust. Paula is currently one of our Driver Porters who showed real initiative and responsiveness during the pandemic and has continued to support our services over and above what was expected of her. During the pandemic Paula took control early on within the Portering team without being asked, she supported all the Driver Porters with the day to day organisation of jobs managing with reduced staffing. The Supervisor for the team was asked to shield and Paula then became the main point of contact. During her day she fully supported portering operations for patient transport, making sure that all patient appointments were kept and transports were covered whilst covering what was needed for the day to day needs of our hospital site including waste, linen pharmacy etc. Additional duties were added during the pandemic and one of these was supporting with the delivery of PPE. Making sure vehicles and drivers were available to allocate PPE. Paula provided an outstanding service to all the areas. Identifying who were in need across all our inpatient units and community sites. Paula made sure that all the generous donations our Trust received including food for staff were collected and delivered to where they were needed most on time and following all the appropriate storage requirements. Without being asked she initiated and supported the collections and deliveries of additional nursing equipment and scrubs. Arranging deliveries, sorting scrubs in to sizes which became an urgent requirement to keep staff safe. Making sure her own team had enough PPE to support their needs. Paula showed excellent leadership skills and was the first to train on the enhanced cleaning and decontamination of the vehicles and was the first Driver to step up and transport patients who were identified as being COVID positive. Showing other staff who were anxious about taking on these duties that if they followed the right procedures, wore the correct PPE then it would be just like a normal part of their day. Paula continues to lead by example and where needed to make changes to keep everyone safe. The Porters supported Paula in everything that she changed, whether it was rotas, or staggering start and finish times. They knew she has their best interests and safety in mind. With all the changes she had to implement to increase staffing and train new agency staff. Look after additional vehicles requirements and learn new skills herself to support others she showed that she was a real asset. Paula was outstanding in her contribution to her colleagues and for her support. Giving confidence to others to be able to get through the day safely making sure patients were not forgotten. During the pandemic the fear from staff in the hospital was very real, Paula kept a level head, showed others what could be done. Paula is most definitely a hero to us in the department.