Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSNurses walked six miles through snow to relieve night shift
Charge nurses Katrina Vine and Della O’Donnell started out at 7am on Monday in order to relieve night shift colleagues at a unit for children and adolescents in Harperbury, which is part of Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Afterwards Ms Vine said: ‘We knew we had to relieve staff who had been on shift at Harperbury since 7pm on Sunday. In the end we quite enjoyed the walk, although I wouldn’t have liked to do it alone.’
Anne Markwick, director of operations at the trust, added: ‘We are always impressed by the dedication of our staff. Katrina and Della provide two examples of the sterling efforts which our staff have made to get into work this week.’
In an online poll on nursingtimes.net, more than three-quarters of respondents said they had experienced staffing problems at their trust because of the bad weather.
Related article on nursingtimes.net: Hospitals cancel operations as snow causes increase in 999 emergencies
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Readers' comments (4)
Damien J. Black | 9-Feb-2009 4:20 pm
Wonderful, I am glad to see this level of dedication and as long as the staff were safe and able to do it. I have done this too in past poor weather and so did many of my clinical colleagues. It is good to see the efforts of health professionals recognised.
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Anonymous | 10-Feb-2009 10:48 am
Wow!! Please come and join our team, many of my colleagues couldn't even be bothered to walk half a mile and come in let alne six!! You are worth your weight in gold!!
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Anonymous | 10-Feb-2009 11:58 pm
Well done to the nurses for their dedication.
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Anonymous | 11-Feb-2009 7:30 pm
I work in the community,I tried for four hours to get into work,including walking outside of my viilage to check road conditions,which were deplorable.I left my phone on all day to answer queeries from colleagues and patients ,then was told I have to take flexi time of 6.5 hours,is this really fair when HR staff where sent home because of adverse weather conditionspatients at mid day?IT seems to me that we have dual standards when ir comes down to adverse weather policies.
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