Claire Austen, Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist, Community Hospitals

Claire’s nomination

Claire is an exceptional Team leader for our therapy team:

She leads by example and is a very hard working, dedicated , fully focused and accomplished OT herself.

She leads the therapy teams in Didcot and Wallingford and both the teams have been variously nominated and won awards for their meritorious work with our patients.

These team wins have a large contribution from their lead therapist and she needs to be recognised for the same individually.

She is a compassionate advocate for her patients. I have seen her repeatedly fight for her patients well-being and long term care in many quarters, well beyond simple therapy limits.

She has often driven equipment etc to her patient’s residences or taken delayed take home medications out to patient’s homes to enable their timely discharges.

She has followed up complex patient journeys much longer after their discharge and I have seen several families feedback on the immense support she has been along with her team to their road to recovery. Her role has been exemplary and above and beyond her job description.

I know her team values her very dearly as their leader having listened to multiple such feedbacks.

Albeit quite petite herself, she has a way of taking charge of situations and often leads the MDTs and complex family meetings in her own unique way which really is worthy of all the praise it deserves and needs to be seen in action to note the exceptional nature of her crisp, pointed negotiations and navigation in complex family meetings.

She is much loved both at work and people equally find her an easy going, simple natured, good laugh as a mate outside of work.

I have been blessed to work with her for last 3 years . She has been an invaluable source of information and support in many ways both personal and for our wider team in offering the best care possible to our patients.

She feels to be equally adept and at ease at both on the ground therapy work as well as in higher management meetings and her expertise and her passion for her role shines through time and again.

She made me feel so welcome to Didcot when I joined 3 years ago and gently took me through many new things that I learned in my initial months while fitting in with the team.

She just seems to know most things and has a vast clinical experience of dealing with complex situations in the past and her mere presence is often very calming in some tense and complex family dynamics meetings that I have also attended.

I believe Claire is an exceptional asset to the Trust and truly deserves all accolades and praise she can get!