“Thanks to us, even small cities in Catalonia benefit from the highest level of traumatology”, Dr. Antonio Navarro i Quilis

There are more than 3,000 nurses and nursing assistants at Hospital Vall d’Hebron. The work they do in the centre is vital and they are leaders both in nursing care and research. Getting to this point was a long process, as Mariona Creus, former nursing director, and Maria Àngels Barba, the current director, recall.

The constant search for excellence is part of Hospital Vall d’Hebron’s nature. The biggest hospital in Catalonia and the leader in many fields, headed since February 2015 by Dr. Vicenç Martínez Ibáñez, who has a close personal and professional relationship with the Hospital. Dr. Martínez Ibáñez says that if Vall d’Hebron did not exist, it would need to be invented. The current director trained at the hospital, where he was one of the protagonists of an historic moment: the first paediatric liver transplant in Spain. Now, he is committed to continuing this legacy and, always putting the patient first, achieving excellence across all staff.

The Vall d’Hebron Digestive Endoscopy Department, now run by Dr. Joan Dot, who took over the role from Dr. Josep Ramon Armengol, who runs WIDER in Barcelona (World Institute for Digestive Endoscopy Research), cares for 70 patients a day with complex procedures and is one of the centres leading the colon cancer screening programme.

Jordi Fernández, law student and head of the Tívoli Theatre in Barcelona, was born with congenital heart disease. He has been a patient at Hospital Vall d’Hebron his whole life. The hospital is one of the most advanced in Spain in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease, thanks to the team in the Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Department, led by Dr. Raúl Abella and Dr. Ferran Rosés i Noguer.

Vall d’Hebron’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit was launched in 1968. Dr. Joan Sauleda, who was its first head, recalls the evolution that led to creating the pioneering Intensive Care Unit, which today, directed by Dr. Joan Balcells, is still the biggest in Catalonia.

Porters are a vital piece in the hospital jigsaw, including during the night shift. A tough shift, which works at the same pace of the rest of the day, as José Luis Rivas, in charge of the night shift, admits.

“The first thing they did was take away my fear”. Journalist Joana Morillas, tells us about her experience as a patient in the Breast Pathology Unit, in the Vall d’Hebron Breast Centre. A very difficult experience, but one during which Joana says she laughed a lot.

Nurses who work the night shift have to combine healthcare work and the need to administer treatments with the patients’ right to rest. This is the case for Daniel Cencerrado, contact person for patient and nurse safety on the tenth floor of the General Hospital. He has been at Vall d’Hebron for more than four years.So, how does he do it? By having a team in which each person has a job to do. Daniel says working at night has its drawbacks, such as having to have strict bedtime habits. But it also has its advantages. Although sometimes you wake up and you have no idea what day it is.