Theatres Nursing Teams

It’s not just the building that needs strong foundations

Our Team story involves multiple nursing teams in Theatres.

As NHS Golden Jubilee progressed with its ambitious plans to open a new surgical centre and redesigned Outpatient Department, we recognised that the development of our workforce also needed significant investment – both for our existing staff and the anticipated 500 new recruits for the new surgical centre.  We wanted to create the foundations for positive team work.

We collaborated with colleagues from Learning and Organisational Development to design and deliver facilitated development sessions to support effective functioning for teams involved in the expansion. For the Nursing teams within Theatres, this meant all nurses had the opportunity to attend a three-hour workshop focussing on self-care, wellbeing and effective team working. The content of these workshops reflected the need to support staff health and wellbeing, a reminder of the foundations of effective team working in healthcare and the need to support staff through significant change associated with the expansion programme. Time was also allocated in every session for exploring emotions as a healthcare professional - and the chance to laugh at ourselves as participants grappled with a challenging set of team tasks!

All seven nursing teams within Theatres were invited to participate. Overall, 39 workshops were delivered, with 434 staff attending a workshop.

The feedback from nursing staff was exceptionally positive and included an appreciation of dedicated time to look at wellbeing and team working, a sense of feeling valued and recognition of the benefits of learning more about self and colleagues within their own team. The sessions generated lots of ideas to improve team working and staff experience, as well as acknowledging teams’ existing strengths and strong foundations for team effectiveness.  We will be taking some of these ideas forward in our new iMatter Action Plans.

The workshops on ‘wellbeing and team’ for Theatre nursing staff have been a visible and welcome investment in our staff, ensuring staff wellbeing and support to effective team working is prioritised. Serving as a building block, we will use these sessions to build further support for our staff in being proactive around self-care, staff wellbeing and healthy teams. So watch this space for 2025!