Meet the young people who ‘took over’ GOSH during the Takeover challenge

This year we had 9 members of staff from across the hospital that took part:  

• Stephen Whyte, Deputy Director of Education 
• Amy Sutton, Deputy Head of Play, and Erin Hanna, Deputy Head of Play 
• Claire Williams, Head of Patient and Public Involvement
• Dorothy Moore Brookes, Head of Chaplaincy  
• Donna Robinson, Patient Experience  
• Paul Ryves, Programme Director of the North Thames Genomic Medicine Service (NTGMS)
• Ajay Gosai, volunteer coordinator  
• Jason Dawson, Executive Director of Space and Place 

Ava spent her day touring the laboratories, having a lesson in genetics, learning out about the Next Generation Study, finding out about learning opportunities and trialling the VR headsets.

Paul Ryves, Programme Director of the NT GMS said:

"It was a privilege to be able to offer this opportunity and gain insight into how young people view genomics in healthcare and knowing it’s understood to be an important and valuable test! I even learnt a bit myself today and had the chance to see the future of education and training through VR training.

"This has given me and the wider GMS team the added motivation to continue ensuring we educate patients and public in the use of genetic testing, and how we continue to better engage through our own Genomic Medicine patient, public and carer panel."

Darcy and Sofia started their day by being introduced to the GLA senior team and were briefed on the day ahead. They sent time in the sim suite, learnt about technology in education and they visited CATS and had a tour of the ambulance.

In the afternoon they led the directorate performance review meeting which focused on the international, specialty and academic education. They had some time to prepare for the meeting and here are some of the questions Sofia wanted to ask.

Stephen Whyte said:

"What an incredible experience participating in the GOSH Takeover Challenge was. From this challenge, I have learned so much from the amazing children and young people who, despite facing enormous health challenges, continue to inspire us all."

Jason Dawson his thoughts on the day:

"This is the second time I have been involved, and I am humbled by the experience each time"

"I was very fortunate to be taken over by Alex, who became my boss for the day. Alex is an amazing young person, and it was a privilege to spend the day with him.

"We managed to coordinate the monthly GEMS awards to happen, and Alex was the chief prize giver for each award. We presented an individual GEMS award to an incredible domestic staff member on our Clinical Research Facility and a GEMS Team award to our Security team. Alex was very photogenic, a big improvement on me."

"We spent time behind the scenes in the E&F back-of-house areas, meeting porters and catering teams, and managed to do a Health and Safety walk around with the Clinical Site Director.

"I was able to introduce Alex to Mat Shaw, our Chief Executive Officer, who came down to Alex's office for a chat. He asked Alex, 'If money was no object and you could do one thing at GOSH to make it more fun or improve things, what would it be?' Alex shared that he would do something to make GOSH greener.

"The afternoon was spent with the Floor Managers in some of our clinical areas and then with the Sustainability team, which is an area Alex is passionate about."

Simone and Petra joined the chaplaincy team for the day, they shared what they enjoyed most about their day:

"We meet a patient who’d been in for nine months and we were talking to her family and siblings and learning about her, her condition and how they spend their time whilst at GOSH. We saw the connection between the chaplaincy and the family and it was really interesting and beautiful to see how close they are and how the chaplaincy team helps to bring people together." 

When asked if there was anything new they learnt today, they both said:  

"I didn't know how much support the parents get from different teams such as chaplaincy. I thought it was only about the patient, but it was really nice to see how everyone is supported and how everyone works together." 

Larisa and Leila joined the volunteer service for the day, we asked them what the best part of their day was and if they learnt anything.

"The best part of my day was dressing up as Chase from the PAW Patrol because I could see the children’s face light up when they saw the character. It was really sweet.", Leila

"I didn't know what therapy dogs were and I didn't know there were 38 of them on the team – meeting Teddy was really cool.", Leila

"I enjoyed going around the hospital to the wards and learning about the work the teams do – I didn't know where were so many wards!", Larisa

Emily's day started at 6am with a train from home to GOSH. When she arrived, she met the play team and started planning her working day.

She joined the monthly team meeting, where she told jokes, sang songs, shared riddles and more.

She tasked the play team to come up with ideas for a play podcast. Members of the play team split into smaller groups whilst they brainstormed and then shared their ideas.