My Difference Today - Virgin Care

Brian Kinsella is Clinical Lead and Clinical Nurse Continence Specialist in East Staffordshire. Over the last 18 months, Brian and Learning Disability Nurse Steph Brinklow, have been visiting care and assisted living homes together, educating staff about continence issues and helping to change the lives of people they care for.

Carmen has been with Virgin Care since the company began its partnership with the NHS in the area in May 2017, stepping up from nurse practitioner to clinical lead nurse a little over 12 months ago. She works across the Skelmersdale and Ormskirk sites, splitting her time between clinical practice and managerial work.

Adele Dick is a healthcare assistant at dermatology centres in Grimsby and Scunthorpe. She was nominated for a Feel the Difference award by her area manager for her unwavering cheerful demeanour.

Anna Dobie is locality business support manager for Wiltshire Children’s Services. As part of a wider transformation project which started this year she helped form a new Single Point of Access team for all children’s services across the region. She was nominated for a Feel the Difference award for her positive management during this challenging transition.

Jacqui manages seven large teams of health visitors across the county and has recently transformed the way colleagues work with the implementation of mobile working

Helen Tilke is a community public health nurse team leader for Devon Integrated Children’s Services and was recently nominated for a long service award. She started nursing 34 years ago.

Martyn O’Neill-Cooper works as a staff nurse at Norwich Prison, where they can have up to 212 prisoners at any one time. He was nominated for a Feel the Difference award for his generous spirit during the adverse weather conditions at the start of the year.

Melanie has been focused on raising awareness of the service she offers to the community and encouraging people to seek treatment for incontinence-related conditions. She has been in the role for two and a half years, having previously been a community nurse at Farnham Hospital.

This year Debra was instrumental in the Health Visiting Service in Bath and North East Somerset achieving stage three accreditation in the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative. She also took two local children’s centres through the assessment process for the first time and they achieved full accreditation alongside the service in May.

Towards the end of June in the midst of the heatwave, at one of our senior management meetings we agreed it would be nice to do something to help cool the patients down a bit and cheer them up. We tried to think outside of the box and decided to buy some ice lollies.