12 May 2021

Nurses at Frimley Health received a visit from The Earl and Countess of Wessex on Wednesday 12 May to mark International Nurses Day 2021.

More than 40 nursing staff from across the Trust were thanked for their relentless hard work during the challenges of the last 14 months.

The royal couple visited Frimley Park Hospital’s new wellbeing garden, part of a refurbishment project to upgrade staff rest areas and facilities with the generous donations from local people, NHS Charities Together and Captain Sir Tom Moore’s fund. Nurses were in the new garden to celebrate this year’s International Nurses Day when The Earl and Countess arrived on Wednesday morning.

The visit included dropping in to see some of Frimley Park Hospital’s newly refurbished staff rooms and a tea and cake celebration with nurses in the hospital’s education centre. Many of the nurses invited to the event had been nominated by their colleagues for their outstanding work during the pandemic.

Several military nurses were also in attendance alongside many of their international nursing colleagues from different countries across the globe. The Earl and Countess also took the time to speak to nurses at Frimley Health’s Wexham Park and Heatherwood hospitals and community teams via a video link. More than 20 nurses from the hospital’s intensive care unit, emergency department, paediatrics and infection control teams were on the video call.

International Nurses Day is an annual celebration that acknowledges and celebrates the commitment and bravery of nurses around the world. It is celebrated on 12 May every year, the birthday of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale. The focus of this year’s International Nurses' Day is on innovation and exploring what nursing may look like in the coming years. The campaign is titled: A Voice to Lead - a vision for future, looking at what it means to be a nurse and how innovations will ultimately shape the future of healthcare.

Lorna Wilkinson, chief of nursing and midwifery said: “It is an honour to have The Earl and Countess of Wessex visit Frimley Park Hospital and pay tribute to the work of our nurses across the Trust. I am extremely proud of what our nurses have achieved and the commitment and the dedication they have shown to patients during the pandemic.

“While our nursing staff have faced unprecedented pressures this year, many of the challenges have actually led to positive changes that will be reflected in our work in the future. Innovation has almost been an inevitable consequence of the pandemic, we have had to innovate to ensure the same level of excellent care is given to our patients.”

Among the nurses who spoke to The Earl and Countess was Diane Dodsworth, MBE, who leads the critical care nursing staff across the trust’s sites and Tracey Coulson, Lead Nurse Vaccination programme.

Tracey said: “It was a real privilege to meet The Earl and Countess, they were very interested to know how we have all coped during the pandemic and were extremely thankful to all of our nurses for the challenges they have faced.”

Diane said: “Our work during the past year has been a true team effort so while we feel lucky to have met the royal couple in person, we will also be passing on those thanks to every single one of our nursing colleagues.”