Carmen Biagioni, a dental nurse and UNISON safety rep at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, has won the ICTU/HSE award.
Carmen became a UNISON health and safety rep in 2009.
“As a female in a male-dominated area, at first I felt intimidated,” she recalls. “However, it didn’t take me long to find my feet.
“I undertook the training offered by UNISON and then training through the ICTU.
“I then enrolled in the National Examining Board occupational health and safety course at night class.
“Armed with all the information, I needed I set out to promote health and safety within the Belfast NHS trust, particularly dental services.
“With the roll-out of Belfast risk assessment audit tools, I met management and staff to find a way forward.
“Staff were not happy at first due to the extra pressures added. However, after management, myself and staff came together to outline roles, a plan was put in place.”
Management took on all the generic risk assessment and the nurses within each department decided to split the other risk assessment between them and share the information.
Carmen co-ordinated the work taking place.
Other projects Carmen was involved in included ergonomic seating for dental nurses.
After trialing many different chairs, management agreed to order a selection for dental nurses, this in turn boosted morale as dental nurses felt that management now took their complaints seriously.
Carmen was instrumental in the refurbishment project within the trusts School of Dentistry and management recognised the hard work carried out by the health and safety rep.
“I was nominated for the health and safety award both by UNISON and Belfast trust,” adds Carmen, “and am very pleased to say I was successful in winning this award.
“I would like to thank those within UNISON and the Royal Hospital branch for helping to make this possible.”
UNSION regional organiser Cath Friel added: “We are all very proud of Carmen. She is the first woman to receive this award in Northern Ireland.
“She has worked hard to improve the health and safety of members – and especially for dental nurses throughout Belfast.
“At a time when the government are proposing to cut the ‘red tape’ and reduce health and safety legislation, safety reps liker her are continuing the fight to ensure all workers go to work in a healthy and safe working environment.
“As an active safety rep in her branch and working as part of our team promoting our Safety in Numbers campaign, she has encouraged a number of other women to become safety reps.”
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