Posted on 28-June-2022   by Pete Williamson

Hillingdon Hospital raves about our CPD Sharps Awareness Workshop

While we have been carrying out annual compliance visits and training for our customers for more than 20 years, it’s still great to get good feedback on the work we do outside of selling our containers.

Since the Spring of 2022, our Sharps Awareness workshop, which covers sharps safety and waste segregation, is a part of our enhanced support package which all of our customers have access to and now counts towards Nurses’ Continuous Professional Development (CPD) hours and can be used as evidence when revalidating their Nursing qualifications.

A refreshing injection of enthusiasm

We ran one of our accredited Sharps Awareness workshops for The Hillingdon Hospital based in Uxbridge in London and  with a group of nurses and infection control practitioners.

Well, to say it was a success is an understatement. Not only did we enjoy having that time with the team – it was really satisfying to know we were really helping them in their day to day jobs in what can be highly pressurised and stressful environments.

Emma Symes, the Deputy Director of Nursing and Deputy DIPC at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, chatted to me after the workshop to share what she thought of the workshop and give us feedback on how it helps the Trust with safety, compliance, and continued learning.

She said:

“The workshop was a helpful tool to get staff to look at quality and safety in their departments and to engage in the process which helps provide the best patient care, in the best environment possible.

It’s really refreshing. In the hospital we are continually training and learning however, having an expert dedicated to sharps safety brings fresh energy & enthusiasm and it helps the staff see it in a different light. It is immensely helpful!”

I have always enjoyed teaching and sharing my knowledge, so it was great to hear that our passion for sharps safety education came through in our presentation with the team at Hillingdon hospital.

Needs on the ‘hospital floor’

Having worked extensively in hospitals over the years, some of which being a Bank Nurse, I was curious to find out a bit more about Emma’s role at Hillingdon.

She mentioned that she really enjoys her role because it allows her to look across a broad portfolio across the whole Trust and work alongside colleagues from multiple teams.

Pete Williamson and Cathy Fowler.

One of the initiatives Emma is involved in, is the ‘Department and Ward Accreditation Programme’, which she explained has been well engaged with across the Trust m and when they looked at the themes raised during accreditations, one of the sections flagged was sharps management. 

This is what led Emma to prompt a discussion with her Daniels representative, Joe Mills when he was conducting one of our annual Compliance Audits. She was keen that the sharps management be covered in the Daniels Sharps Awareness workshop, and that they share the results of the Sharps Audit with the team, in the room, and give them the opportunity to address the findings of the audit report with their refreshed sharps training.

What a great result and an engaged customer to work with. A big thank you and shout out to Emma and her team from all of us here at Daniels.

Feedback and buy-in

While it was great to Emma’s feedback, it was even more rewarding to hear the results of the workshop evaluation survey for the attendees. Everyone said that they would recommend the workshop to colleagues, and they agreed 100% with the fact that the training objectives, content, material and organisation was spot-on for what they needed and that we (Daniels trainer) were organised, well prepared and could answer questions.

If you are interested in hosting a Sharps Awareness Workshop for your team or organisation, or could do with a refresher on sharps safety and management knowledge – please do get in touch with your Daniels representative to discuss your needs.

Pete Williamson

Clinical Adviser & Sales Support Manager for the UK & Europe. Pete specialises in product training and use. His years of clinical experience gives the sales team deep knowledge of our customers role as well as offering valuable insight to our product development team.