EFFORTS from a North Wales-based nursing recruitment team to boost staff numbers on hospital wards have been recognised with a health award.

Seren Betsi Recruitment, the nurse recruitment team based at Abergele Hospital, have been honoured for their work in showcasing opportunities on wards across the region.

Colleagues Abby Kelly and Sue Williams have worked since October 2018, focusing on speeding up the process of recruiting Band 5 nursing staff.

Their work has included looking at different ways of promoting vacant posts externally, as well as streamlining the internal nurse recruitment process, making it three times faster

Abby and Sue were nominated by their manager Luke Macdonald for the Seren Betsi Star award, a monthly prize celebrating the work of NHS staff across North Wales.

"It’s been a great experience working here, and we’re really honoured to receive this award for hopefully making a difference to nurses wanting to work in North Wales," Sue said.

"We didn’t see it coming at all, it was a real surprise to receive the award.”

Luke said that the team’s use of social media to advertise available posts and work to speed up the recruitment process was in need of recognition.

"They’ve shown great initiative in putting a new process into place to help nurses inside the organisation take up new roles," he said.

“They’ve really thought outside the box on ways to improve how we do things, in particular reaching out over social media.

“They’ve also overseen the new process we have for internal nursing recruitment, cutting the time taken for someone to move to a new post.

“They’re brilliant, hardworking colleagues who really know their stuff. They have a lot of knowledge and expertise, and are always looking to learn.”

The Seren Betsi Star award sees NHS staff across North Wales nominate colleagues who have gone above and beyond in contributing to health services.

Panels of staff then vote on each month's winner, who receives a surprise visit in their place of work to receive their award.

Chief Executive Gary Doherty, who surprised Abby and Sue at their office to present the award, said they were deserving of recognition for their work behind the scenes to support patient care.

Gary said: “They’re undertaken some crucial work to bring people into the organisation, which requires a combination of technical skills, social media experience and a lot of hard work.

“It’s effort which is often behind the scenes and isn’t always recognised, so it’s great to have been able to present the team with this award.”