By ANISAH ARIF
Staff from Airedale Hospital, with a tremendous 911 years of service between them, were presented with awards to mark and celebrate their commitment and service to Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.
The long-serving staff consisted of 34 members all with at least 25 years’ continuous service. They received their awards from Chief Executive, Brendan Brown, in thanks for their dedication to the hospital and the NHS. They were joined by the Chairman and other members of the Board of Directors at their celebratory lunch.
Maggie Hanson, community staff nurse has over 41 years’ service and started at the hospital in March 1977. She says, “I trained as a nurse in Bradford, then started working here in 1977. I worked with elderly patients before moving on to orthopaedics, then I worked on our private patients ward and finally onto our women’s health ward where we dealt with breast care and gynaecology.
“In 2004 we started the district nursing night team, and I was part of the team of nurses working out in the community across the Craven district. That community team is still active today, and I’ve spent the past seven years working days in the team.
“My favourite part of nursing now is teaching the younger generation. It’s great to see all the new methods that are coming into nursing practice, and to be able to share this with students is brilliant.”
Dean Harness is an operating department practitioner (ODP) and has 28 years’ service, having started at the trust in 1990 as a trainee health care support worker. He left school at 17 and enrolled onto the vocational training scheme and then qualified as an ODP in 2003.
“I like the variety of my job: one day you can be helping with a hip replacement, the next bringing life into the world during a C-section, or trying to save a life on a crash call and then in the back of an ambulance on blue lights transferring critically ill patients to another hospital. No two days are the same!”
“I like working at Airedale because it’s not too big and also not too small; you seem to get to know people from other areas of the hospital which gives it a nice family feel. There are lots of staff members who have worked here for a long time, and that speaks volumes to me.”
Nick Parker, Director of Human Resources and Workforce at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust says: “It’s important for us to recognise the dedication of our people and to mark this important milestone in their long service. Our people are what make Airedale hospital special, we can only provide great care if we have committed, skilled people like these working at the Trust. Our people are our biggest asset. We are very grateful for their commitment to providing great care and experience for our population.”