60 seconds with Karis Quaye
Karis Quaye is a Senior Sister and the Staff Health and Wellbeing Lead in the RLH Emergency Department.
Tell us about your role.
I work as a Senior Sister in the RLH Emergency Department. This role has many hats. As emergency nurses we are at our core – generalists. In this role I can be running the ED team that sees up to 650 patients a day or managing a nursing team of around 30 nurses, or taking up the flow co-ordinator role ensuring that patients have the smoothest journey around the department. It is a brilliantly varied role and from one moment we can leading a handover yoga to assisting with an unexpected birth the next.
How does your work benefit staff?
The team can see how much we value them. They see that the difficulties in all our roles are being acknowledged, the places that we fall down are being recognised and the great work being done is praised and supported. Seeing the senior team members investing so much into their wellbeing in turn makes our staff proud and committed to their work.
What are some simple things staff can do to improve their wellbeing?
- Leaders should listen to the simple issues and then fix them.
- Feedback and communication is really important. Meaningful and purposeful conversations lead to better working relationships and a feeling of achievement.
- Take a moment and the end of the day - go through what went well, what was learnt and what you maybe want to forget.
- Hydrate.
- Debrief where needed.
- Be kind to yourself. Accept that satisfaction/disappointment/frustration are all normal in the jobs that we do.
What are the most impressive initiatives you've seen to improve wellbeing?
Greatix, an excellence reporting programme, has been a launchpad for learning from excellence and key in motivating our team to work to their potential. The team feel appreciated, valued by their peers and it boosts morale and self-confidence. I have seen it work impeccably in two different EDs across London already and for these reasons I would class this as one of the most impressive wellbeing initiatives I have seen implemented so far.
What’s the biggest highlight of your job?
On a daily basis? Being able to connect with someone. Whether that be a patient, their relative or one of my team. I enjoy figuring out exactly how I can help that individual in sometimes a very creative way to ensure that their day goes a little bit better. From an ED wellbeing perspective, the greatest highlight was finding out that we had secured an ED psychologist for our team and that one of the new Trust initiatives is staff health and wellbeing. Patient care and safety is directly impacted by the health of the nurses caring for them so I was immensely proud to find out that our Trust will be paving the way with our new goals.
What's the biggest challenge?
A fear of burnout and compassion fatigue is a challenge. I believe we cannot care in our entirety for every single patient that we look after and that in doing so we provide a level of emotional protection for ourselves. In the current climate of increasing violence and aggression in the NHS and beyond, it is easier than ever to be distant from our patients. That being said, this allows for us to be there when they need us and to be distant enough to be objective.