A nurse from Cambridge has become a winner of a Cavell Star Award. Diane Lane, a Maternity Support Worker at the Rosie Birth Centre for Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was nominated for going above and beyond for her colleagues.
For the first thirty years of her working life Diane worked in the meat manufacturing industry, packing products and then moving into quality control. During a downsizing operation she was offered a voluntary redundancy and retirement package, so she took it and left the organisation.
“I was retired but I was only 53,” explains Diane “I became bored and I knew I wanted to do something else and take on a new challenge, but I didn’t expect to end up where I did!”
Diane applied to her local hospital to see if they needed help and to her surprise they said they had lots of opportunities.
I thought I’d be too old to go into nursing. But they started me off as a maternity care assistant and then I trained to become a maternity support worker, which is my current role.
Diane has worked at the Rosie Birth Centre for 11 years and as well as general care, she takes blood samples for testing and does baby and mother observations. It’s a very varied role, which includes assisting midwives when delivering babies. Diane is then there for the mothers and babies, giving advice and support with breast feeding.
I love the babies and looking after the parents” says Diane “it’s such a special time for everyone involved in the birth, it’s such a privilege to be a part of it. I love it here.
Diane was nominated for a Cavell Star Award by her midwifery team for going above and beyond for her colleagues. Deputy Head of Midwifery and colleague Tara Pauley explains: “Di’s developed a welcome book for the new maternity care assistants and support workers joining the Rosie Birth Centre. She’s devised an equipment log to ensure she has oversight of all equipment and when it was last serviced. She always tries to attend our CQC meetings where she actively contributes great ideas and opportunities for improvement for the team.
We’re proud that Di is the first person at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to win a Cavell Star Award.
Nursing charity Cavell Nurses’ Trust launched the Cavell Star Awards in 2018 in partnership with LloydsPharmacy Clinical Homecare. Nominations are being sought from nursing teams throughout the UK for that special team mate who has shown exceptional care for either their colleagues or their patients and patients’ families. Each Cavell Star Award winner receives a medal, presentation case and pin badge as well as invites to attend special Care & Cake parties, celebrating of the nation’s nursing professionals.
I’m absolutely delighted, it’s wonderful. When you find out that somebody thinks that you are worthy of being nominated for an award, it’s just amazing!
Rosie Birth Centre, it’s a really good team. My team mean a lot to me. We all look out for each other, and we’re all there for each other.
The Cavell Star Awards are in partnership with LloydsPharmacy Clinical Homecare and sponsored by NEXT, NHS Improvement, National Garden Scheme, Health Education England, NHS Professionals, Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, Alexandra, British Journal of Nursing, The Embassy of Belgium in the UK and Thornbury Nursing Services & Scottish Nursing Guild.
John Orchard, Chief Executive at Cavell Nurses’ Trust, explains: “Thank you to our partner and wonderful sponsors for making the Cavell Star Awards happen.
We know there are nursing professionals up and down the country who show exceptional care every day, often in very difficult circumstances and sometimes when their own life is falling apart. You can say a big ‘thank you’ to your colleagues by giving them a Cavell Star Award!
Cavell Nurses’ Trust is here for nurses when they’re in a crisis, so we are really excited that the Cavell Star Awards are proving so successful at boosting morale for nursing teams working extremely hard in very challenging situations.