Andrew Godden – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Mental Wellness Champion

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 :

So during his time on the wards helping Patients during the first wave of Covid 19, Andy caught the Virus and was at home ill for approx. 2 weeks. Despite feeling run down and battered from his own illness he returned to work to help staff and patients when they needed it. I caught the Virus through Patient contact too a few weeks later and like Andy i was isolating at home on my own feeling awful and very anxious and scared as there was nobody to talk to or anyone that could physically help me other than shopping as i lived on my own. I spoke to the Sister of my ward at the beginning of my 3rd week of feeling ill and she suggested a call from Andy Godden might help as he had gone through the same thing. Unfortunately when he phoned me in his own time after receiving an email asking him to check in as I was not coping so well, I could not talk to him as I was awaiting transport to GRH for tests. Andy followed up with an text message to say I could phone him when I wanted to when I felt better. On my return to work I managed to speak to Andy for about an hour about how I was feeling about what had just happened and what was to come. He calmed me down and explained he felt the same loneliness that I did despite the fact he was in a house with 3 others he just had to isolate from them for 2 weeks. From chatting I felt that my anxiousness and worry was reduced significant and was reassured that I was not going crazy in the head and everything I was feeling was a normal reaction to what had just happened and it would take time for my mind to get back to normal. He mentioned that even the strongest of people need others sometimes. I discussed my fear of being on a Covid ward and how I was scared of catching it again and those feelings returning. Andy continued to check in every week when he saw me at work and said if I needed him to text or call he would fit me in. He gave me some idea's of other resources I could look at and read should I feel I needed to. A few months later Andy also recognised that some other staff on the wards may be feeling the need to talk to somebody, so he arranged a few afternoon's for a staff drop in service to chat about anything affecting your mental health during the pandemic. These were useful sessions so staff could get things off their chests. (Nurses and other medical professionals sometimes forget they need some care too). Andy also arranged and accompanied a Psychologist to come and run group sessions with the staff every few weeks, a sort of workshop to chat about what went well and what needed improvement for both staff and patients. These were well received.