"I love working at Whipps Cross because of its lovely family friendly atmosphere"
We spoke to Karen Bryan, matron at at AAU, AEC and MRAU, about her role, being awarded Star of the Month and highlights from the past year.
1. Hi Karen, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?
I'm a matron for AAU, MRAU and Ambulatory Care and I’ve been at Whipps Cross since I qualified to be a nurse in 2004.
2. Can you tell us a bit more about your role and what a day-to-day looks like?
I’m very involved on the ward so when I arrive in the morning I check on the wards, make sure they are ok, I check on the staffing, and I also attend the flow meetings - my role is basically the day-to-day running of the units.
3. What do you enjoy the most about working at Whipps Cross?
I love the fact that my role is very clinical as I’m very hands on. I love coming in and help looking after a patient – I’m very patient-focused. I don’t think I would enjoy my job as much if it wasn’t clinically focus.
I also love working at Whipps Cross because there’s a lovely family friendly atmosphere.
4. Any highlights from you from the past year?
A highlight for me is definitely looking at how our staff can be very, very resilient and resilience to me is not just about bouncing back, it’s the ability to adapt to changes and being able to do it in a split second, and I’m very proud of staff being able to do this.
5. How do you feel about being awarded Star of the Month and why is it important that people recognise each other’s work?
It’s a shock actually as I wasn’t expecting it but I think is nice for staff to be recognised, they really appreciate it.
For me personally, it’s always a team work, a team effort, so for me getting Star of the Month is not just me because it would have been a team along the way that would have shown that side of me to be able to win the award. It wouldn’t just be me on my own doing that, so thank you for this award and thank you to the staff on Acorn Ward for this nomination, I wasn’t expecting it, they are the stars because they’ve come a long way and they deserve all the success.
6. About the Star of the Month nomination, how do you feel about what your nominator said about you?
As a leaders and managers we have to be inclusive at all times and Whipps Cross is very multi-cultural and diverse so we have to be prepared to give all staff members fair treatment and opportunities. We have to adapt to diversity and make sure when we treat staff we treat them equally and fairly.