Rachel Collins – 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 :

Text pasted below and in attachment. Rachel Collins Security Manager: When approaching colleagues for comments about Rachel, the universal outpouring was staggering and exemplified by the speed of responses. In unison, colleagues said: “Rachel is an UNSUNG HERO already.” Throughout 27 years of service to the NHS, Rachel embodies the unsung hero in all her professional life, a view unanimously shared by colleagues across all service streams. In her role as Security Manager/Local Security Management Specialist Rachel applies the same high standard of professionalism to each task, be it incident or strategic direction. She demonstrates a high level of interpersonal skills and treats everyone with respect and courtesy. Very often she has to discuss painful, embarrassing, tragic events with patients and staff but she does so with dignity, calmness, fairness and consistency. A recurring theme in colleague’s feedback is, ‘calm, clear and respectful.’ She is also extremely modest, even humble, about her own abilities and achievements. Rachel is fully committed to Patient, Staff, Property and Contractor safety. Below are comments from just a few staff who support this nomination: Security Staff Manager: “Rachel is brilliant. Her first thought is always for the team. She ensures that they have the tools, training and support and backing they need to do their job, whether it’s new body worn cameras or a business case for an extra post to ensure the safety of patients, staff, the site and the security team themselves. She always passes on praise from service users and celebrates the success of others. She is forward thinking, looks at the changes and challenges ahead and explores ways to address these.” Emergency Medicine Matron: “Rachel has been pivotal in much of the work we have done on violence and aggression and often reaches out to the team offering support before we ask her for it. Her knowledge and experience is exceptional, and a joy to work alongside.” Senior Strategic Programme Manager Chief Nursing Team: “I have worked closely with Rachel over the last 5 years on key strategic projects for the Trust. She is a kind, highly motivated, incredibly knowledgeable and I deeply respect her. She is always positive, which must be a real challenge sometimes. Rachel is the embodiment of all our trust values and more.” Police Constable, East Oxford Neighbourhood Officer: “I’ve been in contact with Rachel from October 2021 when she reported XXX* coming to site to commit a string of burglaries and stealing medication from a ward. Rachel created a VERY detailed report that cemented the criminal case and assisted me perfectly. Rachel is always a helping hand giving me statements and evidence in a timely manner and has assisted me to stop XXX* committing further burglaries and putting others in danger. The suspect in this case has now pleaded guilty to 7 charges. I wanted you to be aware of the hard work and dedication Rachel has provided to this case and helping me secure the charges. I could not have done it without her!” * Confidential name