Real-life Swindon NHS heroes encourage others to follow their footsteps

By Jamie Hill - 18 April 2017

Community

Healthcare staff in Swindon have become the stars of a striking multimedia campaign encouraging people to look towards the NHS for a rewarding career in a great location.

Real-life doctors and nurses, along with physiotherapists, midwives and admin staff, have lent their faces to a set of eight new posters that highlight the diverse range of career opportunities available at the Great Western Hospital and in the community teams across Swindon.

Each poster shows a different member of staff with either a patient or others from their team with a slogan that captures what it is they love about their job.   

It’s hoped this new approach to recruitment will get the message out to the people of Swindon and the surrounding areas that their local NHS is the ideal place to start, or even kick-start, their career.

The new posters, currently on display in and around the Swindon hospital, as well as at the Orbital Shopping Park, are backed up by a series of radio adverts which are set to hit the airwaves in the days following the long Easter weekend. 

This is the first time that Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has used a targeted multimedia approach to recruitment and it’s hoped the personal feel of the campaign will strike a chord with anyone who may have thought a career in the health service was not for them.

Oonagh Fitzgerald, Director of Human Resources, said: “We want people to know we’re recruiting and that we’d love to hear from them.

"Our approach to this campaign has been to showcase our staff as the stars of our organisation and staff from across the Trust have been involved from day one.

"Above all else our staff said a career with us offers the kind of rewards and satisfaction that can’t be matched. 

"What we do makes an enormous, often life changing, difference to so many people. It’s a unique selling point that sets us apart from almost every other employer.

"New staff will be warmly welcomed into our friendly and supportive teams."

The Trust website, which can be used as a one-stop-shop for anyone wanting to find out more about working at GWH or in the Swindon community, has also been rebranded to mark the campaign launch.

It now features the unique stories of how each of the stars of the campaign came to work for the Trust - from what it was that first inspired them to look towards a career in healthcare to the route they took to land the job they’d always wanted. 

Emergency Department Consultant, Dr Stephen Haig is just one of the faces of the new campaign.

He said: “When it was time to start thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up, doctor was near the top of the list.

“I first came to the Great Western Hospital as a trainee registrar and, from day one, I knew there was something special about the place – both the staff and the patients helped to make each day memorable.” 

Dr Haig’s full story, along with those of all other staff featured in the campaign, can be read online at www.gwh.nhs.uk/jobs

For more information about working for the Trust, call the Recruitment Team on 01793 604983 or email [email protected].

Your Comments

Be the first to comment on this article

Login or Register to post a comment on this article

Subscribe to The Link

Registered in England & Wales. No: 4513027, Positive Media Group, Old Bank House, 5 Devizes Road, Old Town, Swindon, SN1 4BJ