Continuing our look into this year’s #flufighters, Nia Thielmann explains why she is seeing an increase of healthcare staff visiting her for their jabs…

“I’ve been a vaccinator for the Trust now for about five years or so. I do it to help keep patients, ourselves, family, friends and anyone we come into contact with, free of the flu. I try to take an active approach online too, and I tweet when I run my clinics and have informed the main campaign promotion too.

From offering the jab on my ward, in a central location in the hospital, I have noticed a few things. Staff are coming to me saying it’s convenient – they can’t always get to the main clinics on offer in the Discovery Library. Whilst the Trust has run a few great breakfast incentive sessions, a lot of nursing staff haven’t quite got enough time to go down to the Derriford Centre for Health and Wellbeing, as the queues have been a little  long and they can’t be spared from their wards to leave. A bacon bap would be nice though, so maybe this is something to look into for the future.

I’m finding that a lot more of my staff on the ward have been vaccinated this year in comparison to other years, and the other staff who have come to me, are also saying that they have had flu before and do not want it again. I think the minimal pain of the needle, is better than getting flu!

I do offer sweets as a reward which is my usual pacifier for staff and I have had a lot who come back to me every year.

At the time of writing (01 November, 2018), I’ve managed to vaccinate over 200 staff members so far, from the following areas:

• Clearbrook
• Crownhill
• Acute Care Team
• Torrington
• OT and Physiotherapy (Clearbrook based and throughout the Trust)
• Clinical Coding
• CEO Suite
• Consultants and Doctors – I tend to grab any visiting doctors and offer it!
• Medical Students
• Student Nurses
• Pharmacy staff
• SHIP
• Manual Handling
• REI
• USS and Imaging
• Xray
• Urology and Chestnut Clinic
• Mustard Tree
• Marlborough
• Meldon
• Complex Discharge team
• Volunteers, Pastoral Care and Patient Services
• Central Records
• Secretaries
• Labs
• Phlebotomy

I’ll keep going with the vaccination for the duration of the campaign, so please feel free to come and see me for your jab, and a sweet!”

Nia will be offering the flu jab from 10:00 – 17:00, Tuesday’s through to Friday’s, throughout the rest of the campaign.