On Thursday 12 May, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, we marked International Day of the Nurse with a series of activities across our sites.
The practice development team led an agenda of events, which started with a delivery of cakes funded by SASH Charity to wards at East Surrey, Crawley and Horsham hospitals. There will be a second delivery of personalised celebratory notebooks delivered this week, also kindly donated by the charity.
Colleagues were invited to guess the number of test tubes in the vase for the chance to win a 1kg chocolate egg and enter a nursing quiz to win a book on leadership in nursing, recommended by East Surrey Hospital’s library service. As this year’s theme was ‘a voice to lead,’ SASH nursing staff offered their thoughts on leadership in the nursing profession for our social media channels.
In a sign of SASH’s commitment to nurses’ leadership and career development, chief executive Angela Stevenson officially opened two new training rooms for nurses.
In the newly-established Seacole training room at East Surrey Hospital, colleagues had the opportunity to take part in virtual sessions led by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust , nominate colleagues who demonstrate our Trust's core values, while enjoying a new mural dedicated to Crimean war nurse, Mary Seacole, or taking a selfie with nursing props and a party-style backdrop in NHS colours.
Meanwhile in the Nightingale training room, Angela presented Dorinda Oman, Laura Champion and Ifunanya Adaezi Obi with certificates for being the first people to qualify as Professional Nurse Advocates at SASH. She also revealed the first recipient of the Vicky Daley Memorial Scholarship; Isha Edwards, under the shadow of a new Florence Nightingale mural. The Scholarship was established in memory of the Trust’s deputy chief nurse, Vicky Daley, who passed away in 2020.
Our nursing staff also had the chance to visit information stands, enjoy refreshments and hear recorded messages from SASH Chief Nurse Jane Dickson, Professor Lisa Bayliss-Pratt from Nursing Now, a senior representative from the RCN and Unison secretary, Deborah Miles.
SASH chief of nursing and midwifery, Jane Dickson, said:
“After two years of virtual events, it was great that our nursing staff had the opportunity to mark this important calendar moment and celebrate one another in person. Although I couldn’t be there on the day, I was pleased to hear all about this year’s wide variety of activities, and delighted to nominate every one of our SASH nursing staff for their continued hard work. I also send my congratulations to the worthy winners of the Professional Nurse Advocate awards and the Vicky Daley Memorial Scholarship.
“With this year’s theme being is ‘a voice to lead’, I hope that my nursing colleagues will use the newly-opened Nightingale and Seacole training rooms to their full potential, taking the opportunities available internally to continue their development, and striving to be the best they can be as they progress throughout their careers.”
Staff can visit the International Day of the Nurse and International Day of the Midwife 2022 workspace on SASHnet for more information.
