NHS Staff – A Confidential, Safe Place for Staff

Spiritual Care Lead Dawn Allan is on hand to offer holistic support to staff who would like to take in a confidential, safe space.

By offering therapeutic listening, Dawn acknowledges what affects a person emotionally, mentally, physically, psychologically and spiritually.

She says: “Staff are NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s most valuable assest and to have a safe place to vent and off load can help prevent someone and/or a team from imploding or going off sick for weeks and months at a time.

“This service is invisible across the organisation but many staff are still unaware of how to access it.

“No conversations between myself and a member of staff are documented apart from the appointment time, venue and a colour coded reason about the nature of the appointment.

“I am on hand to encourage staff to value themselves and each other so they learn how best to support themselves and colleagues.

“It can be reassuring to know that there are colleagues going through a similar situations. We may all be different, but what we have in common is our humanity which we should never apologise for.

“Within healthcare, staff face life and death regularly at work, it’s healthier to acknowledge our humanity and know that it is okay to be afraid, to feel overwhelmed and not to feel guilty for being human.”

There is always hope and when NHS staff have a heathy self-awareness they will:

• know when not to project their own expectations or experiences onto others
• be courageous enough to acknowledge when an expected approach to work was not communicated effectively enough to enable a hoped-for outcome
• apologise when something goes wrong or there is an error of judgment
• communicate without condemning each other
• respond to unhelpful behaviour/misdemeanours/lack of judgment wisely and privately – not in public to preserve everyone’s dignity and equality
• be committed to truly learn from negative and positive experiences
• lead by example for junior and less experienced staff to know they can grow in confidence and competence and to be people of their word
• treat each other with compassion and dignity – genuinely care about the wellbeing of others i.e. will give each other ‘some slack’ and not patronise
• aim to be emotionally mature and know when their ‘cup’ is empty i.e. will learn how to say ‘no’ when they have nothing left to give
• question practices of colleagues appropriately – be open to constructive feedback of their own practice
• help reduce risks to increase the health and safety of everyone
• recognise when it is time to step aside for others to grow, learn and succeed – no one is indispensable
• compliment and praise others when they do well (without resentment)
• be aware of their faces at rest and their working facial expression!
• will remember to smile
• will be aware this is not an exhaustive list!

How to make an appointment for Staff Support?  dawnallan1@nhs.net  Tel:  01387 246246 Ext 34511 Mobile:  07795 120965

By email, landline and/or mobile phone