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The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust is hosting Wolverhampton's Virtual National Breastfeeding Week event on Friday, June 11th from 10am until 12.30pm as an online event via MS Teams. This free online celebratory event is aimed at parents with young children, new mothers, pregnant women and their families, plus health professionals.

Senior nursing / midwifery roles are really important to provide oversight and support across nursing and midwifery services. Two senior nurses have taken on new roles across two hospitals that I am involved with, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare Trust (WHT). Once a month I normally spotlight an individual that has undertaken amazing work, but this month I thought I would pick two people new to roles who are now helping to lead nursing services across two hospital and community Trusts.

A year on from the law around organ donation changing in England, NHS Blood and Transplant and The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) are urging people to talk to their families about organ donation to increase the number of people whose lives can be saved or transformed by an organ transplant.

Over 210,000 Covid-19 jabs have now been given in Wolverhampton – with eligibility being extended to anyone aged 34 and over from today (Thursday). Latest figures show 136,232 residents have had at least one dose of the vaccine, while 74,507 people are now fully vaccinated after having both doses. Anyone who is eligible for the life-saving vaccine but hasn’t had it yet is urged to book theirs as soon as possible.

The mobile Covid-19 rapid testing unit is now available at New Cross Hospital to support The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust to safely reintroduce visiting to its wards. Anyone without symptoms of coronavirus is invited to get a free test by visiting the unit, which is situated outside the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre, between 11am and 8pm every day.

The mobile Covid-19 testing unit is available at Wednesfield Community Hub, Well Lane, until Sunday (16 May). Anyone without symptoms of Covid-19 can get a free rapid test, without an appointment, at the unit from 8am-7pm today and tomorrow (Saturday) and from 9am to 5pm on Sunday. It will then move to New Cross Hospital next week.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity is urging people in the West Midlands to join the nation’s biggest tea break on 5th July and help raise money for the incredible people in our NHS who’ve done so much to help everyone get through the pandemic. Following a year like no other, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Charity wants as many people as possible to get involved in a national outpouring of love and thanks for NHS staff and volunteers on its birthday.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s Breastfeeding Peer Support volunteers scheme celebrates its 10th birthday this month. Over the last decade, many volunteers have helped support mothers on their infant feeding journey by joining the scheme, which is based at New Cross Hospital.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has started offering total shoulder replacement surgery as a day-case procedure to selected patients. Previously, patients needed to stay in hospital for two to three days following this procedure but they can now return home on the same day as their operation.

A 60s band member and his family are fundraising to thank the staff at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust who cared for him after suffering from a stroke. In August 2020, John O’Hara, 75, from Claregate, was rushed to New Cross Hospital with a suspected stroke. Whilst on the Acute Stroke Ward his condition deteriorated after suffering a large bleed on the brain.

Happy International Nurses Day! Every year on May 12th we celebrate this time to reflect on the outstanding contribution of the world’s nursing professionals. To celebrate International Nurses Day this year I would like to highlight two nurses who have made immense contributions to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust (WHT).

Just like with International Day of the Midwife, we’re keen to use International Nurses Day as an opportunity to challenge the stereotypes around nursing, particularly around it being associated as a ‘female profession’. Nursing Degree Apprentice Robert Day-Smith is one individual challenging that perception! After a number of years working for a plumbing business, an injury led Robert to thinking a career change was needed.

Many young nurses would be unsure about moving to work in a new country during a global pandemic, but Adenike Kusamotu was not put off by this – she, alongside 36 other international nurses, took the plunge and joined the Trust in February of this year. Now working at New Cross Hospital on the respiratory ward, she finds herself doing her bit to care for the patients of Wolverhampton and its wider communities.

While bereavement was never the obvious choice for Nikki when going into a caring profession, the Specialist Bereavement Nurse describes the role of supporting families to be “extremely rewarding.” Nikki Farrington, who lives in Willenhall, always knew she wanted to be a nurse and describes it as “a true calling, albeit a cliché.” Having qualified within the Trust’s own School of Nursing, back in 2000 the plan was always to go into children’s nursing.

No more has infection prevention (IP) been at the forefront of our minds than in the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why we’re recognising IP Matron Lisa Hall as part of this year’s International Nurses Day campaign. The world of nursing isn’t where Lisa had dreamed of working as a young girl, particularly as she enrolled on a secretarial course aged just 18, but on realising the range of opportunities to progress and the interesting things to learn, the teenager made the leap and enrolled at Stafford’s then School of Nursing.

A former nurse from Wolverhampton has revealed how she felt compelled to come out of retirement to join 400 nursing colleagues across the Midlands who returned to the frontline to support the NHS response to the pandemic. Cheryl Etches, who previously worked as a Chief Nurse at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust before retiring in 2019 describes how she responded to a call for former nurses to return to the profession to lead the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Senior Staff Nurse on New Cross Hospital’s Intensive Critical Care Unit (ICCU), Laura Ivko describes the past year as “without a doubt, the most challenging period of [her] nursing career.” Laura started off her working life as a Carer in a Wolverhampton nursing home; here she saw many of her colleagues go on to do their nursing qualification and move into senior positions that offered great opportunities to progress.

To mark International Nurses Day, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) is proud to announce it now has minimal nursing vacancies and a waiting list for full-time midwifery staff. There are around 36,000 unfilled nursing posts across the NHS, but the Trust is retaining its own staff and seeking more. Currently the Trust has around 3,000 Registered General Nurses (RGNs), 500 more than in 2019.

Nearly 20 years as a nurse with The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Leigh Dillon, Matron for Planned Care District Nursing, Supportive Care and the Oximetry / Virtual Ward, is keen to celebrate the impact of nurses everywhere, in both acute and community services. From having her daughter at a young age, Leigh was keen to disprove the common misconception that having a baby young can disrupt your career plans and rob you of your dreams.

Staff Nurse Ammandeep Bhangu is our next ‘staff spotlight’ in our International Nurses Day campaign. For Ammandeep, nursing was very much a ‘family affair’. She explained: “My mum is a nurse, my sister is a nurse, my uncle is a nurse, and my cousins are doctors. I’ve been inspired through growing up with people working in healthcare professions; all doing wonderful things every day to make people feel fit and well.

Say hello to Ambra – she’s a Trainee Paediatric Advanced Nurse Practitioner. Having studied for her nursing qualification back in Italy, her home country, Ambra saw an opportunity to work in the UK and noted Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital to be “a fantastic place to work.” Ambra, who now lives in Birmingham, joined the Trust in 2015 as a Staff Nurse on the children’s ward.

While the nursing care received directly on the hospital wards is critical for ensuring positive health outcomes, an important part of the patient journey is a smooth discharge from hospital. This is where Sister Michelle Carless comes in. Normally working on Hilton Main Ward at Cannock Chase Hospital, Michelle was recently redeployed to the Discharge Lounge at New Cross Hospital.

A new black simulation manikin with intricate features has been purchased for staff to use whilst training. The new manikin, named Leonardo, joins a family of three white males, a pregnant woman and two robotic children, one baby and one child, in the Trust’s Sim Ward. Leonardo uses wireless technology and can blink, move and represent physiological changes in the patient’s condition.

“You’ve got to keep an eye on your moles – don’t think skin cancer can’t happen to you. Even if you are fit and well, you must get them checked if they change colour or shape.” That’s the advice of 27-year-old Danielle Walker, who was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma after years of sunbed use. But it was only after watching the Stand Up to Cancer Gogglebox special, that Danni thought to get her mole checked out.

The NHS’ most prolific COVID-19 plasma donor has returned to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust with a memorable drawing to thank Intensive Care Unit (ICU) staff for their outstanding care. Darren Buttrick, from Wolverhampton and Head of Sales at 02, asked his neighbour to draw a picture of him lying in a hospital bed with an angel pictured at the back of him. The angel represents four nurses named his “four angels”, that Darren says saved his life.

A new campaign is launched in Wolverhampton today (Friday 7 May) encouraging people to make rapid Covid-19 testing part of their regular routine. The Get Up, Get Tested, Get Back to Normal campaign, supported by the City of Wolverhampton Council, the NHS and West Midlands Police, highlights how twice-weekly testing can enable people to get on with their lives safely.

The 3rd-9th May is Sun Awareness Week and we’re speaking to one of our own patients, Anthony Hill, who was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma almost two years ago. Melonoma is a type of skin cancer which is often caused by too much sun exposure. The first sign is often a new mole or a change in the look of an existing mole. According to NHS UK, melanoma skin cancer is the 5th most common cancer in the UK, with around 16,000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year.

There aren’t many people who can say they get to witness magical events every day as part of their job. However, two of my senior nurses say exactly that. Kate Cheshire and Stacey Thacker are the Deputy Heads of Midwifery at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Both tell me that being a midwife is the most amazing job and there is no better feeling than witnessing new life coming into the world. I would like to celebrate their careers as part of International Midwives Day.

Two senior nurses at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust have become the first in the organisation to be honoured for their contributions by Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England. Professor Ann-Marie Cannaby, Chief Nurse, has received the Gold award at the Chief Midwifery Officer Awards, recognising lifetime achievements for nurses and midwives. Karen Glover, Matron in Trauma and Orthopaedics, earned the Silver award, which recognises major contributions to patients and the profession.

In an effort to ensure positive birth experiences for all women, midwives on New Cross Hospital’s delivery suite are now offering service-users the choice to have a small light display during labour; hoping the relaxing environment will encourage feelings of happiness and contentment. The lights – ranging from fairy lights and LED candles – are being stored in what’s being called a ‘beautifying birth box’.

As the Lead Digital Midwife for RWT, Bernie Williams is at the forefront of digital innovation in maternity care. Bernie, who was previously a nurse within neuro-surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, joined the Trust in 1996 after undergoing her midwifery training. She has since worked across a number of different maternity specialities.

Say hello to Emma Thorns – she’s a midwife on New Cross Hospital’s Delivery Suite. Currently on secondment as a Delivery Suite Coordinator, the 29-year-old didn’t always know she wanted to work in midwifery. In fact, she wanted to be a planning consultant (working in housing and property), just like her dad! But after a period working as a healthcare assistant at a hospital in Shrewsbury, she soon grew interested in the physiology of pregnancy and birth and decided it would be the perfect career to throw herself into.

Say hello to midwife Asha James-Giscombe – she’s one of our ‘staff spotlights’ in this year’s International Day of the Midwife campaign. Originally from Nottingham, Asha moved to the Midlands in 2017 and has since worked across the Trust’s many maternity specialties: antenatal, community, delivery suite on so on. Now a core member of the postnatal team, Asha cares for a range of women on the maternity ward, from those who are pregnant to those who have just given birth.

As we continue with our International Day of the Midwife campaign, it’s time to introduce Community Midwife Debra (Deb) Wolverson. A midwife with over 30 years’ experience, Deb is one of the Trust’s longest-serving staff members with her career starting back at Wolverhampton’s Royal Hospital in 1984. After a year of nursing in the Royal’s Emergency Department, Deb soon began her midwifery training and never looked back.

This International Day of the Midwife we are challenging the stereotype of midwifery being a ‘female profession.’ Well say hello to Carlos Pereira Melhorado – a male midwife working on New Cross Hospital’s maternity ward. Originally from Portugal, Carlos initially worked as a primary school teacher in Madrid, but after achieving his nursing qualification decided to make the plunge and enrolled for nurses training in the UK. Here he went on to qualify as a midwife and has worked for the Trust since 2002.

Midwife Jessica Manton wears many hats within RWT’s maternity department – Professional Midwifery Advocate (PMA), Associate Delivery Suite Manager and Delivery Suite Coordinator. The role of the PMA is a multifaceted, requiring the expert knowledge and skills to support women throughout all stages of their pregnancy and birth journey, while also dedicating time to guiding colleagues in their practice and helping them to grow professionally.

Our first case study for International Day of the Midwife is Community Midwife Rosie Ladkin. Originally from Bristol, Rosie started her working life as an actress in musical theatre, but soon realised that she was destined to work in a caring profession; wanting a career where she could “give something back” to her local community. With a fascination in pregnancy and birth, Rosie knew that midwifery was a field where she could go on to make a big difference.