Ngh Volunteer Services – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Volunteer of the year

Individual or Team Nomination?

Team

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 :

Whilst many volunteer services teams were suspending their services NGH at the height of the pandemic, NGH volunteer services were fast thinking and worked alongside their communications team to actively recruit 150+ volunteers in March 2020. It became apparent that the regular voluntary roles that the volunteers undertook would need to be adapted to meet government and hospital guidelines. The team instantly knew the impact on no visiting would have on the wellbeing of the patients and were forward thinking in setting up new initiatives to support our patients and ease the pressure on staff The team promptly interviewed and supported the 150 applicants through the process in record timing, worked closely with trust wide teams to ensure the volunteers received the right training and took themselves out of their own comfort zone to make things happen. To accommodate the increased number of volunteers and to remain safe, the team regularly moved location which in itself was no mean feat. Carting kit across the hospital whilst juggling new volunteers, different training and anxious patients made it a challenging time yet they didn’t complain once. Within days (of restricted visiting) the team has organised patient property drop of points for loved ones to drop belongings off, virtual visiting for patients a volunteer on each ward to support patients and staff. Naturally, it was trial and error in the beginning, but with the incredible determination of the team, desire to help others and the willingness to success, the new initiatives were a great success. Since March 2020 the team have supported volunteers to deliver 6122 pieces of patient property, undertake 3616 video calls and deliver over 3600 newspaper. In addition to this they have delivered 1000’s of letters to loved ones, over 8000 ice lollies to staff and cages full of Easter eggs. More importantly the team have been in every day through the pandemic, faced their own fears and supported patients when they were at their most vulnerable. Their kindness to both staff and volunteers has been inspirational, it is this what has encouraged volunteers to commit more of their time to help others. The resilience the team have shown through the pandemic has been incredible, whilst fearing for their own safety they continued to put the wellbeing of colleagues and patients first and ensuring that the volunteers were kept safe. Their achievements have been phenomenal which has been recognised by 100’s of cards, emails and praise from patients, families and staff. Nothing is too much for the volunteer services team at NGH, even throughout all of this the team have supported volunteers into paid work, undertaken additional training to support the volunteers to the best of their own ability and they have sacrificed their own weekends to ensure the patients’ needs are met. This team are the most kind, caring and compassionate team I have had the pleasure to work alongside and their commitment to help others has resulted in volunteers giving over 45,000 hours in the last 12 months.