Working exceptionally hard to improve our service in Morris Ward to benefit not only patients, but staff too, is one of the reasons Assistant Ward Manager, Karen Mills, won our Improvement to Service Award in our staff Make a Difference awards, which celebrates our winners from 2019-2020.

As we began our response to COVID-19, we had to cancel our awards ceremony in March – but we didn’t let the pandemic stop us celebrating our amazing colleagues. Including Karen, who always finds ways to creatively engage with her patients including everything from painting to gardening and keeping chickens!

Although we couldn’t come together for our celebrations in the same way this year, we decided to mark Karen amazing achievements a little differently with a surprise visit from our Chief Executive, Professor Oliver Shanley OBE, and Chair, Joe Fielder.

With her team and colleagues gathered together for a secret meeting at Goodmayes Hospital, Karen was thoroughly surprised when Oliver announced her as the winner of our Improvement to Service award in recognition of her commitment and hard work to improve the care and experience of every patient on her ward, as well as her caring and supportive leadership to her colleagues.

Oliver Shanley, Chief Executive, said: “I was delighted to present the Improvement to Service award to Karen, as she has a real focus on patient care and improving leadership across the team. Some of the changes she has led on Morris Ward are simply incredible and have even been recognised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as ‘Outstanding’. She’s a fantastic and worthy winner.”

Her colleague who nominated her said: “Karen has made continuous improvements to the ward on everything from the physical environment to the patient experience, which is reflected in the 2019 CQC inspection, as the ward achieved two ‘Outstanding’ ratings for being ‘responsive’ and ‘caring’. She supports staff to work autonomously and guides them to be able to make decisions themselves when faced with scenarios around managing risk.

“Karen is passionate about ensuring that new staff and students have a robust induction for a week prior to stepping onto the unit, which reflects in their performance once they commence clinical duties. She has a wit that is enduring to others but equally her honest, straight talking is not far behind, which is vital when being a lead for such a specialist service.”

Karen said: “Thank you very much for this. It's nice to see that the work I do on Morris Ward is reflective with this award. We do work hard here. I teach the guys vocational skills as in painting, decorating and gardening, which are the sort of jobs that they would go out to. For me that is what keeps me enthusiastic.”

Every year our Make a Difference Awards recognise staff who go above and beyond to deliver great care for our patients and support each other, and Karen – who was selected as a winner before the pandemic – is an example of a true NHS hero.

Meet all our Make a Difference winner

• NELFT Nurse Award: Rose Mitchell, Community Staff Nurse
• Care and Compassion Award: Rose Mitchell, Community Staff Nurse
• Team/Department Award: Acute Crisis and Assessment Team (ACAT)
• Leadership Award: Debbie Feetham, Assistant Director Immediate Care
• Outstanding Achievement Award: Salim Danyen, Integrated Care Assistant
• Improvement to Services Award: Karen Mills, Deputy Ward Manager
• Working in Partnership Award: Jennifer Iheanetu, School Nurse
• Chair’s Special Recognition Award: Justine Reed, Respiratory Nurse
• Harm Free Care Award: Diane Quinn, Community Mental Health Nurse