Wyndham House Surgery

Every month the Guardian newspaper publishes a 5 minute interview with a Healthcare Professional. Before she leaves I asked the same questions of Trish Brown, who has been a Practice Nurse at Wyndham House Surgery for 25 years.

Five minutes with…..Trish Brown, Lead Practice Nurse at Wyndham House Surgery

Describe your role in a sentence:

Lead practice nurse at Wyndham House Surgery, with special responsibility for prevention, screening, management, support and education in all aspects of clinical and long term care.

Why did you want to work in healthcare?

I didn’t – my mother thought it would be a good idea and organised an interview; the expectation in those days was that any career would stop as soon as you got married and had children.

How do you see the sector (General Practice) change in the next five years?

General Practice will have an expanding more streamlined role in preventing hospital admissions and caring for people in the community; nurses will have greater responsibilities; units will be bigger with more shared resources.

My proudest achievement at work was….

Developing a high quality system of diabetes care and using it as a model in my teaching role.

The biggest challenge facing the NHS is…

The ever increasing demands on its resources; with both an expanding elderly and a younger overweight population, with multiple health needs requiring many more costly treatments.

The people I work with are…

Supportive, caring, delightful and interesting; a great team!

I have worked with and met many amazing people.

I do what I do because…

I love my job and get great satisfaction from it.

Sometimes people think that …..

…my job is simple, but it requires much patience, especially with the elderly who require a great deal of support, lifestyle advice and education.

Right now I want to….

Well it’s a lovely spring day outside, so I would like to pull my boots on and go for a nice long walk with my husband!

At work I’m always learning that….

You never know it all. There is always new information. It’s a constant and fascinating learning curve.

The one thing always on my mind at work is….

Keeping to time.

If I could go back 25 years and meet my former self I’d tell them….

Having a fulfilling career will give you self- confidence and that you can push yourself beyond your expectations and never to dismiss any opportunities.

What is the best part of yourself?

That I can communicate with people and patients on all levels at their level, from professors to the man in the street.

What is the worst part of your job?

Policies and protocols

What makes you smile?

That I’m just so lucky to live and work in such a wonderful and beautiful place, have a very fulfilling job and a happy home life. Every day makes me smile.

What keeps you awake at night?

Last night it was Molly my dog – she had just had an operation yesterday and I had to check on her several times last night to check she was OK.

Last week I caught up with Trish to ask her some questions about what life has been like working at Wyndham House Surgery for a quarter of a century.

When did you start at Wyndham House Surgery?

I started working at Wyndham House in 1989 doing 12 hours a week, and then gradually increased until Rosanne retired in 2001when I gave up working at Exeter College and took on more hours to become the Lead Practice Nurse. In 2002 I began the Elderly Project which assessed and supported older people to live healthy and independent lives.

There has always been a strong team here who have given me great support. When I started I had not been working for several years and was lacking in confidence, so was very lucky to be encouraged to expand my knowledge and skills. I can remember in my early days, Dr Jonathan Stead asked me to give a talk to hospital consultants, diabetes doctors and GPs at the Postgraduate Medical Centre about the role of the practice nurse in the management of patients with diabetes, I was terrified and my knees shook – it ended up by being very rewarding, and lead me to develop my teaching skills and take on other new challenges.

What were you doing before you started here?

I started my training at Trelisk Hospital in Truro, and then worked in Barbados at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where I qualified, returned to England and worked on a surgical ward at the West Cornwall Hospital. Subsequently I travelled to Qatar for a short time, working for the WHO. I returned to Devon and was a staff nurse in the trauma unit of the RDE, became a ward sister on the stroke unit and later a clinical nurse teacher in orthopaedics. I lived in Indonesia for several years, where my son was born and had a career break in the early years of his life.

I returned to nursing by getting a part-time practice nurse position at Wyndham House Surgery and soon started to specialise in diabetes care here and at the Diabetes Centre. Later on I worked on some diabetes research projects at the hospital and with Dr Colin Greaves on several community based studies. I also had a half-time position at Exeter College as their college nurse managing a great many minor illness, injuries and contraception clinics. I also became a practice nurse trainer/assessor and lectured in the General Practice Nurse Foundation Programme now run by Plymouth University.

What is the greatest change in patient care since you started?

The nursing role has changed greatly since I trained; we have much more responsibility for disease management, where great progress has been made in the prevention, screening, treatment and management of many long term health conditions. More research has given us the evidence on which to improve our treatments. We have more vaccinations to prevent debilitating diseases, many of which have been eradicated. There is also much more training including an excellent degree level training programme for practice nurses which was developed in Exeter and has now been adopted nationally.

I have seen huge changes in clinical research from the very basic facilities I worked in to the magnificent Research and Development Centre, with many highly equipped Laboratories here in Exeter.

When I started at Wyndham House the medication was all stored in a small cupboard, now we dispense over 6,000 prescriptions a month.

There are also more protocols, guidelines, policies and tighter restrictions on what we do.

What is your most memorable experience?

We have had several patients collapse with heart attacks at the surgery. I can remember once after resuscitating a patient he opened his eyes and asked “Are you an angel?”

What are you proudest of in your time here?

That’s hard, once you set up one thing you move on to the next. I suppose developing the practice nurse role in providing a high standard of diabetes care and management has been very rewarding. I am proud of the Elderly Project, and its offshoots, which has been successful thanks to the generous support from the Friends of Wyndham House. I have also been very involved with developing and teaching on the degree level Practice Nurse Foundation Programme.

Walk and Talk has been very successful, with initial support from Natural England and the recruitment of a team of walk leaders from the local community, and of course it helped me to meet and get to know my husband!

What are you looking forward to in retirement?

Just having more time and living life at a more leisurely pace.

What will you do with your time after retirement?

Well, I want to learn to paint and draw. I shall spend lots of time with my husband, read more and get my large garden into shape. I also plan to do some volunteering – I would like to set up a befriending service for the elderly and a Memory Café in the village. I will be able to do the Tuesday Walk and Talk group and I will carry on helping with the Balance Classes and the SCENE newsletter.

What will you miss most about work?

The team at Wyndham House, who are a cohesive and friendly group, and of course the patients many of whom I have known for many years.

Our lead practice nurse – Trish Brown – is retiring at the end of March after 25 years working for Wyndham House Surgery.

A familiar face to many patients, especially if you are diabetic, Trish Brown has been instrumental in setting up many projects that Wyndham House runs or supports in our community. She started work here in 1989, when we were still in the old building (now part of the Community Hall) as a part-time Practice Nurse, following some interesting work experience in Cornwall, Barbados and Qatar. While with us Trish has carried out diabetes research, which was published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as also working at Exeter College as their college nurse for 10 years, and also training new Practice Nurses as an assessor/trainer on the General Practice Nurse Foundation Programme at Exeter Medical School (later the Peninsula Medical School).

Trish has been an integral part of the surgery for many years and has been the lead for managing diabetes patients for most of her time here. During this time rates of Type 2 diabetes have increased substantially, meaning that far more time and resources are needed to support patients with this difficult and complicated condition. We have been extraordinarily lucky to have one of the country’s leading Specialist Diabetes Practice Nurses working here and Trish will be sorely missed by staff and patients alike! We wish Trish well in everything she does after she leaves us! 

Want to read more:

Follow the link to read an Interview with Trish or our exclusive 5 minutes with Trish Brown

Come and raise money for Comic Relief by supporting our Bake Sale at Wyndham House Surgery on Friday 13th March from 2-4pm.

All cakes welcome! Why not “Make your cake funny for money” or Bake the healthiest cake you can!

Bring any baking donations into the surgery on Thursday 12th or Friday 13th March.

Come and buy between 2 and 4pm on Red Nose Day.

Wyndham House Surgery always welcomes new patients who live in our large Practice area. We also accept patients from out of our area under new Government ‘non visit’ regulations – give us a ring to find out more.

We offer health checks and a medication review with a Doctor for all new patients.

Our Bertie prescription delivery service is available for all housebound patients.

The 2015 version of the SCENE newsletter is now available. This booklet is full of useful information about local clubs, activities and groups, especially for the over-60s.

Click the link to see the newsletter in pdf format, or drop by the surgery to pick up a paper version

The local Carers Support Group meets every third Tuesday of the month in the Methodist Church, Silverton at 2pm.  This is a fantastic method of supporting those who are full or part time carers for their relatives especially those looking after patients with dementia.

Here is a picture of the Wyndham House entry in the Silverton Christmas Tree Festival along with Lucy, Claire, Carol, Lex and Jan.  We decorated our tree according to the International theme of this year’s Festival.  30 other local groups and societies helped fill the church with some wonderful displays and original ideas.  The money raised from the Festival went to the South West Children’s Hospice.

We encourage everyone to actively support this fantastic project which aims to convert the old toilet block into a Health & Well Being Centre.  The raffles at our Flu Clinics this year have raised nearly £500 for this project and Jenny Roach (Chair of the Room4U Committee) was on hand to answer questions.  Ultimately the project aims to provide a place for older people in Silverton that will offer a warm and friendly environment, social opportunities for patients and their carers (e.g. Memory Cafe) and a hub from which other healthcare activities could run (e.g. stroke therapy, foot care and reflexology)  It could also be the centre for a proposed Neighbourhood Health Watch scheme.  With our ageing population it is essential that communities maximise their potential to provide social cohesion and support to try and help those most in need and to reduce the risks of social isolation.  This scheme is a wonderful example of a community working together to seek solutions.

A new group has started in the village giving you the opportunity to enjoy a sociable couple of hours during the winter months on each Wednesday afternoon (except the 4th in the month)in the Silverton Methodist Hall.  Just turn up to knit, crochet and natter amongst new and old friends, share tips and techniques.

Organisers: Claire Barton tel 01392 860704 e mail: dcbarton@live.co.uk  & Sylvia Wakeham Tel: 01392 861390 email: sfwakeham@aol.com