Nuffield Health Hospital take healthy steps
Working within a healthcare setting during a global pandemic exacerbated the need for individuals to look after their physical and mental health. Therefore, we initially set up the Wellbeing team at Brighton Nuffield Health Hospital at the back end of 2020, with the vision of providing support to our staff in all areas of health and wellbeing. Our aim was to create a community where it is encouraged to exercise, to eat well, to feel healthy and most importantly to ask for help and support.
We started by holding workshops on the topics of stress, mindfulness, sleep, exercise, and nutrition and put in place initiatives for staff to increase their physical activity. These have included a number of very successful ‘Leave your car at home days’, free exercise classes at the hospital, lunchtime walks – all of which are continuing to grow in popularity.
More recently, we have linked these alternative ways to travel with reducing our carbon footprint. We have started initiatives to reduce single occupancy travel to the hospital by taking the bus to work, as well as running, walking, or cycling. To further support this, we are promoting our staff to use the ‘better points’ app, introducing them to the cycle to work scheme, and are currently in the process of applying for a grant (with the help of the local council ) to help fund a bike storage unit.
As a result of these initiatives a number of our staff have used the ‘cycle to work’ scheme to purchase their very own e-bikes, which they now utilise as their predominant mode of transport to work.
A Modeshift star has been a great system to help document our active travel plan, log initiatives and track progress. We recently received our first accreditation which is a fantastic way of showing other businesses and consumers our commitment to a more sustainable way of working.
Apart from the obvious health and wellbeing benefits of exercising it has been a great team building experience and has brought the hospital teams closer together. There is a real sense of community within the hospital. Staff sickness has reduced since starting these initiatives.
Moving forwards, we have started to set out plans to deliver our wellbeing talks to a bigger audience, opening them up to other Nuffield Health locations and members of the public. We are also looking to work with other Nuffield Health sites to help the company achieve its strategy of being carbon neutral by 2030.
Elaine’s Story
The wonderful Oncology Clinical Specialist Nurse, Elaine has recently ventured into the world of electric bikes! As we’ve been trying to encourage this sort of thing through our Leave Your Car At Home days and other similar events at #nuffieldhealthbrightonhospital, I thought I’d do a little spotlight interview with her, just to demonstrate how easy it is to take advantage of. Here are Elaine’s answers:
“I’ve worked at The Nuffield Brighton Hospital as a Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist for the past four and a half years, prior to coming here I spent twenty years as a cancer/Macmillan Nurse in the NHS.
I live quite close the hospital – about 2 miles away near Preston Park. Over the years (on sunny days!) I’ve tried cycling or walking in…but there’s Bear Road to contend with. It’s such a steep hill and I feel exhausted by the time I get to the top, not a great way to start a day at work. I feel that with such a short journey I really shouldn’t be using my car, if it was flat I would be walking in.
After several unsuccessful attempts to cycle on a ‘normal’ bike I started to think about looking at electric ones. I’d heard about the ‘cycle to work scheme’ and did some investigating, looking at the options online. Once I realised what a big financial saving I could make I applied and bought myself a folding electric bike from a small online company called Estarli.
I hadn’t realised how much I’d enjoy the ride to work. The hills are so easy now and I can keep up with my family on a bike ride, I still have to pedal and can make my cycle harder or easier depending on how I’m feeling. I would definitely recommend the scheme to colleagues who are thinking of getting a new bike as the money saved is really noticeable and you can spread the cost over several years.”
Working within a healthcare setting during a global pandemic exacerbated the need for individuals to look after their physical and mental health. Therefore, we initially set up the Wellbeing team at Brighton Nuffield Health Hospital at the back end of 2020, with the vision of providing support to our staff in all areas of health and wellbeing. Our aim was to create a community where it is encouraged to exercise, to eat well, to feel healthy and most importantly to ask for help and support.
We started by holding workshops on the topics of stress, mindfulness, sleep, exercise, and nutrition and put in place initiatives for staff to increase their physical activity. These have included a number of very successful ‘Leave your car at home days’, free exercise classes at the hospital, lunchtime walks – all of which are continuing to grow in popularity.
More recently, we have linked these alternative ways to travel with reducing our carbon footprint. We have started initiatives to reduce single occupancy travel to the hospital by taking the bus to work, as well as running, walking, or cycling. To further support this, we are promoting our staff to use the ‘better points’ app, introducing them to the cycle to work scheme, and are currently in the process of applying for a grant (with the help of the local council ) to help fund a bike storage unit.
As a result of these initiatives a number of our staff have used the ‘cycle to work’ scheme to purchase their very own e-bikes, which they now utilise as their predominant mode of transport to work.
A Modeshift star has been a great system to help document our active travel plan, log initiatives and track progress. We recently received our first accreditation which is a fantastic way of showing other businesses and consumers our commitment to a more sustainable way of working.
Apart from the obvious health and wellbeing benefits of exercising it has been a great team building experience and has brought the hospital teams closer together. There is a real sense of community within the hospital. Staff sickness has reduced since starting these initiatives.
Moving forwards, we have started to set out plans to deliver our wellbeing talks to a bigger audience, opening them up to other Nuffield Health locations and members of the public. We are also looking to work with other Nuffield Health sites to help the company achieve its strategy of being carbon neutral by 2030.
