It’s National Inclusion Week and we’ve been catching up with staff from across our hospitals about what inclusion means to them.

Our first stop is our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital (KGH) to speak with Charlotte Banks, a nursing associate.

Charlotte (pictured above right) joined us as a healthcare assistant, with dreams of becoming a nurse in theatres. Development opportunities were few and far between, with no pathway in place for her to complete a nursing degree.

However, Charlotte was determined to achieve her goal and – with the support of Theatre Matron Guru Kholgade – she was able to enrol on a nursing apprenticeship with London South Bank University, which allowed her to make the step up. She’s recently qualified from that and is now starting a nursing degree with the University of East London.

Charlotte said:

The support I’ve had from Guru, the management team and the nurses in theatres has been amazing. It’s made me feel so valued and my passion and potential have been recognised and invested in.

Other nurses in the department have shared their stories of studying and how they managed the workload and assignments, which will be really helpful.

Guru (pictured below) is a big believer developing his staff, inspired by his own career at our Trust.

He was a specialist theatres nurse in India before joining us in 2006. He started as an orthopaedic nurse and progressed with two promotions in the next few years.

Eager to return to working in theatres, Guru worked bank shifts and completed academic qualifications. The hard work paid off and he moved to theatres in 2009 and has stayed there for the past 15 years, progressing to his current role.

The department has introduced training packages for anaesthetic practitioners and theatre practitioners to develop the skills of the 110-strong team.

  Guru said:

  The opportunities are there if you have the resilience and put in the hard work – we have a loyal and dedicated workforce who really want to develop.

  That’s something we really encourage – all nurses have dedicated mentors. The journey for international nurses is also much smoother than it used to be and they all have such great experience and talent.

Eduardo Antonio is one such example. The anaesthetic nurse has worked at our Trust for 22 years, starting on the surgical wards at the former Oldchurch Hospital before moving to the KGH theatres.

He said:

While working here, I’ve completed several postgraduate and clinical leadership courses. My ambition is to progress into senior management in the NHS.

One of our 800 Filipino colleagues, Eduardo (pictured below) contributes to our annual celebrations for Philippines Independence Day and says being able to celebrate his background makes him feel valued.