All part of an NHS PR person's day's work

Okay so you all think the world of public relations is glamorous right? Well, maybe... Even in the NHS it's that buzzy team in the office coming up with the vibrant ideas and always talking (or tweeting) very loudly about it - when we're not out to lunch that is!

Hannah and myself at the RCN stand

Well I would like to set the record straight here and now.  Firstly, yes I am very proud that myself and my brilliant team of Sarah, Mandy, Hannah and Andrew occupy the buzzy, vibrant area of Stockdale House in Headingley and yes we do have some great ideas - we may not share some of the wilder ones with the rest of the organisation - but I am proud of everything we do.  Yes we do bake a good cake to accompany our fresh coffee or Earl Grey tea and we do enjoy the odd lunch at Hyde Park Corner or in Headingley if we're celebrating something special - but I like to think we're known for turning work around and getting some brilliant results.

Above all else, we're focussed on the needs of our organisation, our services, our staff and the patients and their families we serve - we use our communications expertise to share messages and seek engagement with key individuals and groups.

This week's activities that fall within the remit of "all in a PR person's day's work" are possibly on the less glamorous side.  Our work has involved having lots of lovingly branded items made for our current recruitment campaign.  So count them: 1,000 hessian bags, 1,000 hand sanitisers, 1,000 trolley coins, 1,000 torches, 1,000 water bottles, 10,000 (yes 10,000) pens oh and before I forget (not that it is possible to), the 1,000 air freshener dangly things fragranced with jasmine - and yes, I do regret giving Mandy and Hannah free reign to choose the scent as it's all you can smell in our office right now!  I also regret the hessian bag choice, well I don't because it looks fabulous, but when you have eczema on your hands, handling hessian bags makes your eczema bleed - but it doesn't make me exempt from mucking in to help the team effort!

Before and after 

It's all focussed on how we attract new talent to our organisation to be the future of community healthcare in our brilliant city of Leeds. We have some challenges in terms of vacancies within some of our services so it's our job as comms people to get some great messages out about working for our organisation and to make this sound attractive as possible.

So we made the biggest production line in Stockdale House history (our Leeds head office) to put one of each branded item into each hessian bag, as we've been attending some jobs fairs in Leeds in the last week to attract new staff to our current vacancies in our organisation.  Attending the fairs means getting the 1,000 filled bags to each venue and setting up what is for us, a bit of an ambitious exhibition stand.  But we're taking it in our stride and doing quite well actually!

Today and tomorrow we're at the Royal College of Nursing Jobs Fair in New Dock Hall, Clarence Dock, Leeds. Myself and Hannah from the team have been lugging round said goodie bags and lots of other boxes and racks, as well as putting up our gargantuan display graphics that include our fab campaign strapline: "A passion for community services" - that's us in 5 words - at the venue yesterday so we can attract some lovely new staff to our organisation.  So if you're interested in nursing or indeed any other role in a community focussed organisation then do stop by any time from 10am - 5pm - we're on stand number 15.  

And we have some great goodie bags to give away...in case you hadn't guessed.  Here's hoping for a great event and some new staff to join our community based organsiation.

P.S. Before I go, I just wanted to add that it's Sarah's birthday this week, so if you need us, we're out to lunch on Friday trying to put a little glamour back into our week!

P.P.S. We do have a vacancy coming up in the team so if this post has attracted you to our heady world of hessian bags, glamorous exhibitions and the odd team lunch, keep an eye on NHS Jobs for the details.

Gillian Neild, Communications, PR and Marketing Manager, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust

@GillianNeild