Learning charity National Numeracy joined UNISON to embed numeracy in the Preceptorship programme for newly qualified nurses at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Monday 9 October, as part of unionlearn’s #mathsworkout week.
Tom Jenkins, UNISON’s regional learning and development organiser for the North West, delivered a ‘Fun with Numbers’ workshop to around 50 nurses. Activities included a celebrity age quiz and a drug calculations workout.
Sally Hilton and Hannah Cowan from National Numeracy discussed cultural attitudes to maths with the nurses before guiding them through the online Numeracy Challenge with a view to their being able to claim the Essentials of Numeracy.
Sally and Hannah also met with the hospital’s Numeracy Champions and held a stall at lunchtime encouraging hospital staff to take a ‘maths teaser’ quiz to win a Malteasers bar, with everyone from housekeepers to radiographers, healthcare assistants to doctors taking part.
The day was put together by UNISON learning reps Jane Eyre and Bev Herring in partnership with Blackpool Hospitals Trust.
Jane Eyre said, “The stall at lunchtime was a great success with around 70 members of staff taking the quiz. We are looking forward to more of these days and promoting numeracy further within the Trust.”
Sally Hilton said, “It was a really positive day with a much greater level of engagement than we could have hoped for. People really understand the importance of numeracy in healthcare and want to support staff to improve.”
Tom Jenkins said, “This is a fine example of the benefit of union learning for enhancing numeracy skills in the workplace. The partnership that our reps Jane and Bev have developed with National Numeracy is a great model that we would like to see in every workplace.”
Find out more about Jane and Bev’s work with the Numeracy Challenge
Have a go at the TUC’s Citizen Maths e-note
