A nurse from Paisley has been nominated for a major national award recognising the best in the business.
Linda Mayberry is in the running for the adult nursing award at the inaugural Royal College of Nursing Scotland (RCN) nurse of the year awards.
The 54-year-old works at the Institute for Neurological Sciences (INS) in Glasgow as a patient flow coordinator – helping to minimise stresses and worries for anyone who spends time in the INS either as a patient or a relative or visitor.
When she heard the news of her nomination, she thought it was a festive wind up.
“It was our Christmas night out on the day I heard and I thought someone was having a joke,” she said. “But when I realised they were being serious, I was just so touched and honoured.
“To be thought of like this is so lovely – in fact I got quite emotional.”
Linda has to deliver devastating news to patients on an almost daily basis – with 60 per cent of those arriving at INS being defined as emergencies and, in many cases, having suffered very serious injuries.
“In emergency cases we are dealing with people who may be receiving devastating news,” she said. “And it’s not just patients who may be facing a life-changing situation, so I look at the whole family.”
She continued: “We want them all to be able to concentrate on their treatment and recovery. We don’t want them to worry unnecessarily so we try to make things as easy as possible for them.
“If the family are happy, the patient is happy and that really helps them.”
Linda was nominated for the award by Pamela Philp, lead nurse for neurosurgery.
She said: “Linda is our fantastic patient flow coordinator.
“Her whole focus is on improving a patient’s journey through our unit, and she uses her significant clinical expertise to support sound clinical decisions in patient flow.
“By improving patient flow we can treat more patients.
“Linda’s enthusiasm for continuing to improve our services for our patients is contagious – in fact, she’s the glue that keeps our unit together and working so well.”
The shortlist for the RCN Scotland nurse of the year awards with will announced in February 2023 with the ceremony itself held next June at the spectacular Grand Gallery in Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland.
But Linda was more reluctant about being singled out for such high praise.
She added: “I’m really proud of what I do, and I know my job’s important, but this is a team – that’s how this whole place
works. We’re just one big, brilliant team and I feel like everyone should be recognised.”
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