Yeovil Hospital therapists wins Uniform Hero award

Emily Alden, who first qualified as an OT in 2001, said her white tunic and green trousers mean the world to her, representing the profession she’s dedicated her career to.

The challenge of her role and her ability to help patients make positive changes is what makes Emily tick at work.

She said: “I care for the most unwell patients at Yeovil District Hospital, at a time when they’re at their lowest and can do very little.

“It’s very much about looking at what’s meaningful to them and what they need to do, and can do, to help themselves to get better.

“It’s not always the medical side of care that helps a patient recover, as it’s often psychological too, so as an OT I promote activity – it’s very much the nice part of patient care I think.

“For the other part of my job, I work on our medical and orthopaedic wards where we look at helping patients to get home from hospital, so the latter part of the care journey.

“This involves helping patients to think about how they’ll manage when they get home, what they might need help with for their day-to-day life, and how we can make that happen.”

“I didn’t honestly dream for one minute that my entry would be selected though, and I’d actually forgotten all about it, so it was a complete surprise when I got the award.

“It was only when my fellow OT colleague Hattie Bradley took me, unsuspecting, into a room one day, and all my colleagues were waiting and cheering for me that I realised what was going on.