Zanya Petken

Zanya works as an Associate Practitioner for the Falls Prevention service based in Horsham. Zanya was nominated by Andy Richardson on behalf of ‘all in Falls Prevention Service Central.’

Zanya works as a Band 4 Associate Practitioner for the Falls Prevention Service based at Horsham Hospital. We feel we could have nominated Zanya for any one of these awards but choose this award as it allows us to best tell you about how wonderful she is.

Here are just a few examples of why we feel she should receive the ‘Reaching Your Potential Award’.

Contribution to service improvement:

Zanya is an active member of a QI project to improve the working environment in Rose Wing at Horsham Hospital. Through her hard work we now have a dedicated staff room and a staff shower. She arranged a staff photography competition to choose artwork for the staff room walls. She came into work on her annual leave to decorate the staff room too.

Our Trust Area Head of Nursing and Governance said of her ” You are a great ambassador of keeping team spirits… inclusive with all great events, bringing a feel good factor to teams.”

Zanya has led on a project this year to restart our falls prevention exercise classes that were stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zanya and a colleague are currently re-designing our Care Home falls risk assessment form to improve the quality of information we receive for referrals.

Zanya recently arranged a Macmillan coffee mornng in the office- raising nearly £200.

Working in Complex arenas:

Zanya assesses and treats patients with complex needs. This complexity comes not only from multiple physical and mental health problems, but from complex social situations as well.  Zanya shows huge compassion for her patients, consistently going above and beyond to get the best outcomes for them.

We regularly receive compliments from patients and their families about Zanya – here are 2 received within the past month:

  • “I feel a thousand times better [since seeing Zanya] and can now see a light at the end of the tunnel”

“Zanya is one in a million… my husband has his wife back now… Zanya has saved my life”

Develop own skills & those of colleagues:

Zanya is always looking to increase her skills. In 2021 she qualified as a Postural Stability Instructor (involving over 200 hours of study) and has also completed an 8-week Tai Chi course. She has since put these skills to good use with her patients. She is now looking at a podiatry course.

As infection control champion Zanya takes the lead to keeping the rest of the team up to date on these issues. She regularly inducts new champions on procedure like the hand hygiene audit and using the glow-light box.

Zanya is always willing to discuss a complex patient with her colleagues, both in the falls team or for many of the services we connect with. She has a wealth of experience and always give excellent advise.

Zanya is quick to volunteer to have a student or new member of staff shadow her to help with their induction and training around falls prevention.

Zanya and a colleague are currently working a training programme for care home staff around falls prevention.

Zanya recently prepared and taught the falls team how to do urine analysis and well as updating us on best practise for taking clinical observations.