RJAH apprentices hailed as 'Unsung Heroes'
Two hard-working administrators at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital are celebrating after being shortlisted in the Apprentice of the Year category in the national Unsung Hero Awards.
Maisie Bunn, Administrative Apprentice on the Midland Centre for Spinal Injuries (MCSI); and Millie Gregory, Theatre Administrative Assistant; are both up for the prize after they were nominated by colleagues for going above and beyond their call of duty.
The Unsung Hero Awards are the only awards that celebrate the work non-medical and non-clinical NHS staff and volunteers do daily.
Maisie was nominated by Hayley Stokes, MCSI Administrative Assistant, who said: “Maisie started her apprenticeship on MCSI in July 2020, at the height of the pandemic when we were short-staffed due to colleagues being redeployed or working from home.
“She is outstanding with our patients even during times of conflict, has a great attitude towards her work and takes on extra responsibilities without complaint, and has helped our team tremendously during these difficult times.
“Maisie is a credit to our team and her hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed.”
Theatre Sister Emma Thomas nominated Millie in the category.
She said: “Millie started her apprenticeship back in 2019, and not long after, took on an improvement project which involved her developing the Bluespier software – our theatre management system – so scrub staff could add their swab and sharps count electronically, instead of writing it by hand. Prior to Millie’s project, this information was not able to be uploaded to the system.
“This project was an enormous task, where Millie worked alongside surgeons, anaesthetists, matrons and other theatre staff, as well as the project managers in the Trust and our Bluespier account manager.
“Despite Millie being redeployed to another team during the pandemic and her apprenticeship being extended due to the pandemic, her project still continued and was a huge success. She also managed to pass her apprenticeship with a distinction.”
The Unsung Hero Award winners will be announced during a ceremony taking place in November.
Maisie said: “I was really shocked to be nominated and shortlisted in the Unsung Hero Awards. I’ve tried to support all my colleagues throughout the pandemic, and I’d like to say a big thank you to Hayley for nominating me.”
Millie added: “Thank you to Emma for the nomination – the project has been hard work, especially due to the added pressures of the covid-19 pandemic, but it has been so worthwhile.”
