Welcome to the latest issue of My Download - your regular news roundup. The deadline for contributions is 5pm on a Thursday. If you have anything that needs sharing with colleagues, please don't hesitate to get in touch: dchst.communications@nhs.net.

Fluathon coming soon: If you haven’t had your flu vaccination already, protect yourself, your patients, and your family by joining our DCHS Fluathon! During the week 11 – 15 November, we will be talking all things vaccination and flu, as well as giving you the chance to vote for your top three charities that will benefit from our flu campaign this year. We’re making it as easy as possible to get your flu vaccination that week with our bookable and drop-in clinics as well as roaming vaccinators and flu ambassadors if you have any questions. Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent the spread of flu within our community and to safeguard those who rely on our care. Let’s work together to stay healthy this winter.

End PJ paralysis: From 11–15 November, we’ll be focusing on the #EndPJparalysis campaign and how we can work together to reduce unnecessary time spent in hospital beds. This national campaign emphasises the importance of keeping patients mobile and engaged to avoid the negative effects of prolonged bed rest and helping people to not spend any longer in hospital than is clinically necessary. We know many of you are already doing fantastic work to encourage patients to get up, moving, and active and we’d love to hear what you’re doing. We’d also like to hear about your plans or initiatives for the week to tackle PJ paralysis - you could invite relatives to join patients in the dining rooms, make use of day rooms, initiate activities/games or exercises or design a display board. You could even put your pyjamas on over your uniform at lunchtime to start the conversation around PJ paralysis. Let’s make a difference together—please share your thoughts and ideas with Aoife Gibbons.

Filming at St Oswalds last week: We were delighted to host UHDB and BBC at St Oswald’s Hospital, Ashbourne, last week for a report on the importance of breast screening. Listen back here from 1:40:22.

Teams leading Derbyshire’s trailblazing help for families host visit from two of England’s top nurses: Our 0-19s services team were delighted to welcome Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for England, and Professor Jamie Waterall, Deputy Chief Public Health Nurse for England, to Alfreton Primary Care Centre to discuss the success of a partnership with Citizens Advice which has unlocked £2m in unclaimed benefits for struggling local families.

Duncan and Jamie heard how the joint initiative with Citizens Advice delivers a direct referral line for health visitors and specialist community public health nurses working with families with children from 5-19 years, who would benefit from the support and expertise of Citizens Advice on a broad range of cost of living factors affecting their health and wellbeing including benefits, debt and housing. Read more on what they had to say here.

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disabilities and Autism Tier 2 is now available to book on the following dates:

Thursday 21 November at Cavendish Hospital, Buxton
Thursday 28 November in the Johnson Building, Derby
Thursday 19 December in the Committee Room, Walton Hospital.

All sessions are available on ESR for patient facing staff to book onto now.

Admin appreciation and recognition: Thank you to admin colleagues who completed the admin survey over the summer, your feedback helped to shape the new DCHS Admin People’s Charter. Hazel Lea presented to the Trust Board, along with Emma Round and Karen Guy. The Charter contains a number of pledges to enable you to feel involved, appreciated and a valued staff group at DCHS. The Board happily endorsed the Charter.

The appraisal section of the survey asked if you have career conversations. Around a third of respondents kindly expressed an interest to help us to develop and tailor the 'Scope for Growth' templates to be a more user-friendly tool for career conversations, you can find the templates here (expand the box at the bottom right of the screen).

We are currently requesting feedback on our aspirational development plan. If you find that it works for you, please complete this plan and share it with your line manager during your Scope for Growth – career conversation at your next appraisal. This will make it easier to feedback in the survey on your experience. If you’re happy to provide feedback on the plan, please submit your comments and feedback in this survey before Friday 29 November. For example, should we make the template shorter or easier to use? Thank you for your support.

Admin Forum - Wednesday 11 December, 10am - 11am: We hope you can join our next Admin Forum on Wednesday 11 December, click here to join the meeting. Here’s a summary of the last Admin Forum. If you'd like your name added to the Admin Forum MS Teams channel, please contact Hazel Lea.

New from your Quality Conversations (QC) team - how to have better conversations around mental health: There are still have a few places left on the next session, happening on Tuesday 12 November from 9.15am - 12.15pm. This session will give you the skills to:

Recognise the need to open up conversations around mental health
Explore ways to open up conversations around mental health
Practice these skills
Feel confident to listen and respond
Know how to signpost accordingly.

You can book your place here.

Tissue Viability Service pathway update: There has been an update to the 'lower limb initial treatment' pathway red flags contained within the G214 DCHS compression hosiery formulary guidance. To summarize, the red flag assessment now reads:

Immediately escalate to the relevant clinical specialist, those with the following ‘RED FLAG’ symptoms/conditions:

Acute infection (e.g., increasing unilateral erythema, swelling, pain, pus, heat)
Symptoms of sepsis [consider 999 or admission to A&E]
Acute or suspected chronic limb threatening ischaemia (e.g., PAD / PVD in combination with rest pain, gangrene, or lower limb ulceration >2 weeks duration) [urgent referral to vascular centre]
Suspected acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) [refer to GP]
Suspected skin cancer [urgent referral to dermatology services]
Bleeding varicose veins.

The full pathway and guidance can be accessed here. Any printed versions of this document should be discarded immediately as they are now out of date.

Medicines Management controlled drugs newsletter - October 2024: Read the latest edition here.

National education and training survey (NETS) open: The NETS is now open to all healthcare students, trainees and apprentices, including resident doctors and dentists in postgraduate training. NETS offers a platform to share your experiences and shape the future of healthcare education. Your feedback helps us make informed decisions to enhance learning environments, support retention and recruitment. You can find more information on the attached poster. Please take 10 minutes to share your experiences.

This week’s leaders' and managers' update spotlights:

Quality Improvement training
NHS Elect’s ‘Thrive at Work’ online event covering many different tips and topics for improving and maintaining wellbeing at work
People Promise roadshow dates and venues in November
‘Induction for clinicians new to digital’ training programme.

Take a look at the latest update here. You can book via ESR self-service – search 'people management' to view all available sessions.

This week is International Stress Awareness Week: Stress itself is not a mental health condition, but we know that it can develop into depression or anxiety if it is not promptly recognised and responded to.

If you want to understand more about stress and how to manage it, please consider booking onto our Wellbeing team's two hour stress workshop. This session provides a deep dive into what stress is, the impact it has on us, the things we can do to prevent it and the things we can do to relieve it. They also run a stress HIIT session - a short sharp 30 minute session for those looking for a dose of support and some ideas they can put into action straight away! In this session, you will learn what stress does to your body and identify things you can do to ease the pressure. You can book on either of these sessions here.

Schwartz Round - ‘Men’s mental health - we need to talk about it’: Please join us for our next virtual Schwartz Round on Tuesday 12 November from 1pm - 2pm. All colleagues are welcome. We would love to see you there! Book your space here.

Update from your wellbeing team: Find out what's on offer from your wellbeing team in their October update here. If you would like to find out more about the diverse range of wellbeing support available, please visit the JUCD wellbeing website. If you need any further help with your wellbeing, you can contact our wellbeing team: dchst.yourwellbeingteam@nhs.net.

Congratulations to the following teams on sustaining your Quality Always Gold achievement and DCHS Dignity 2 certification via the Earned Autonomy self-assessment process:

Adult Speech and Language Therapy team (Thursday 24 October)
Integrated Sexual Health Services South/Derby City (Thursday 24 October)
Chesterfield and Dronfield Outpatient Therapy/MSK service (Thursday 24 October)
North Integrated Sexual Health Services (Thursday 31 October)
Chesterfield and North East Community Podiatry team (Thursday 31 October).

Congratulations to the teams and individuals below who have been selected as the Quality and Safe Care Champions for September for their work to support Falls Prevention Week. Well done to you all!

Butterley Ward
Whitworth Urgent Treatment Centre
Pharmacy
Katie Goodwin at Swadlincote Health Centre
Ripley district nurses.

Expression of interest for a Staff Network Chair role: We have an exciting development opportunity for the role of the disability and long-term conditions network Chair (this role will also support the neurodiversity group). The network brings employees and allies together to create a catalyst for positive change and provide a platform for support and networking.

This role will require 7.5 hours as protected time a week, this will need to be agreed with line managers. Backfill funding will be provided. If you’re interested in putting yourself forward for this position, could you please send an expression of interest to Ismaa Ramzan by close of play on Friday 15 November, outlining:

Why you want to do the role?
What you can bring to the role including the positive difference you can make?

And of course, Ismaa is more than happy to talk this through in more detail with any of you: Ismaa.ramzan@nhs.net and 07827081776.

Jobs at DCHS: Check out all the latest DCHS vacancies here.

Congratulations to Nicola Renshaw and Cara Haylock on Snowdrop Ward in our Walton Unit who have just registered as nurse associates after a tough two years of training. Ward manager Dawn Bradley said: "They have developed as HCAs and it has been a pleasure to watch them both grow in skills, confidence and professionalism." Well done to you both.

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