Leicester Royal Infirmary (Children's) Archives

Charity Single: This Won’t Last Long

We’re delighted to launch our new charity song ‘This Won’t Last Long’, a song of hope and strength for our friends and colleagues in the NHS.

It has been written, recorded and produced in isolation whilst staying at home to help protect, and in celebration of, our NHS.

We’re happy to offer a free download of this song at our Bandcamp page.

If you like what you hear, then please support the work of the amazing Hospital Charities in Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sherwood Forest Hospitals at our Justgiving page.

Thank you!

Music in Healthcare Apprentices

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We’re delighted to introduce our new Music in Healthcare Apprentices for 2015/16. This innovative programme, now in its second year, is designed to support emerging Music in Healthcare musicians in developing their own regular, professional practice.

pictured L-R: Nick Cutts, Rachel Fillhart (Apprentice), Sarah Matthews, Aisling Holmes (Apprentice), Becky Eden-Green (Apprentice), Richard Kensington, Kate Jackson (Apprentice)

Last year’s programme was extremely successful, with Apprentices collaborating to form two new Music in Healthcare organisations, Wellspring Music CIC and Pulse Arts CIC, working in Nottingham and London respectively on new programmes of practice including at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. These new organisations remain connected to OPUS Music CIC through the growing Music in Healthcare Network, and through its Associate Musician Programme.

Our new Apprentices, all who previously took part in one of OPUS’ five-day Music in Healthcare Settings training programmes, have already spent a few days working alongside OPUS Musicians to begin planning their own programmes of work, and to develop repertoire and approaches to Music in Healthcare practice. Each Apprentice will work alongside mentors (OPUS Musicians) in one of our regular Children’s Hospital practices:

Becky Eden Green will be based at Leicester Children’s Hospital
Rachel Fillhart will be based at Nottingham Children’s Hospital
Aisling Holmes will be based at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital
Kate Jackson will be based at King’s Mill Hospital (Children’s wards)

We’re delighted to be able to continue our Apprenticeship programme in 2015/16, and looking forward to seeing (and hearing) new practitioners and programmes of practice emerging.

The Apprenticeship programme is made possible using public funding by Arts Council England.

Music in Healthcare Settings Apprenticeships: 2015-2016

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APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED
Many thanks for the many applications we received.
We look forward to announcing our new Apprentices for 2015/16 soon.

We are delighted to launch the second year of our Music in Healthcare Settings Apprenticeship programme.

From September 2015 to June/July 2016, we are offering four paid apprenticeships, exploring Music in Healthcare Settings practice alongside highly experienced OPUS Musicians and Trainers and supporting the development of new programmes of practice.

Click on the following links for more information:

Full Apprenticeship Programme Details (pdf)
Apprenticeship Timetable (pdf)
Application Form (word)
Application Form (pdf)

The deadline for applications is midday on Friday 5th June 2015 with interview/auditions to be held in Derby on Friday 12th June, Monday 15th June or Tuesday 16th June 2015.

** ADDITIONAL INTERVIEW DATES ADDED **

This programme is made possible with the support of public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Continued music-making residencies in children’s hospitals

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We are delighted to be able to continue, and expand our existing relationships with Derbyshire, Leicester, Nottingham and Kings Mill Children’s Hospitals with support from Youth Music and from our local and hospital partners.

This support means that OPUS musicians will now visit each hospital on a weekly basis until April 2016, making music for and with the patients, their families and staff.

Our recent evaluation and documentation work has demonstrated the highly valued impacts of this practice; we are incredibly grateful for the support of all our partners in enabling this work to continue.

Music in Healthcare Settings Apprenticeships: 2014-2015

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We are delighted to launch our brand new Music in Healthcare Settings Apprenticeship programme.

From September 2014 to July 2015, we are offering four paid apprenticeships, exploring Music in Healthcare Settings practice alongside highly experienced OPUS Musicians and Trainers and supporting the development of new programmes of practice.

Click on the following links for more information:

Full apprenticeship programme details (pdf)
Apprenticeship timetable (pdf)
Application Form (word)
Application Form (pdf)

The deadline for applications is midday on Friday 6th June 2014 with interview/auditions to be held in Derby on Monday 16th June 2014.
This programme is made possible with the support of public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Evaluation: OPUS in Children’s Hospitals

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OPUS’ current music in hospitals programme, taking place in Derbyshire, Leicester, Nottingham and Kings Mill Children’s Hospitals, is coming to an end in March 2014. We hope to resume the practice in May 2014, funding permitting! As part of the current programme, OPUS engaged the services of Evaluation Consultant Dr Anneli Haake to evaluate the programme. Anneli has done a fantastic job, capturing evidence of the impacts of this practice and pulling this all together into academic and summary report documents, an A1 size academic poster (for display in hospitals) and the film (3 versions) previously shared here. View and/or download the files by clicking the images below, and please feel free to share! Huge thanks to Anneli for all her work on this project with us.

Sunshine in My Heart Film: OPUS in Children’s Hospitals

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We are delighted to share our film, made as part of the evaluation process of our current Music in Children’s Hospitals practice supported by Youth Music, Derbyshire Hospitals Charity, Nottingham Hospitals Charity, Leicester City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. The film was captured at Nottingham and Leicester Children’s Hospitals by our fantastic external evaluator Dr Anneli Haake.

There are three versions of our film. The full film is 24 minutes long, but if you don’t have the time (please try to make time, we think it’s worth it!) there are 4 minute and 1 minute ‘tasters’. Please do get in touch and let us know your own reflections on our film..

Full film (24 minutes)

4 minute ‘taster’

1 minute ‘taster’

A Moving Musical Experience.

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One visit to a Children’s Hospital in November 2013 we were passing through one ward on our way to work in another, or so we thought……we were spotted and invited into one young patient’s room by his Mum.

She already knew us and knew of our work, as we had met before when her older daughter had been in the same hospital previously. Recently, her young baby had been having difficulty in passing faecal matter over the last four days and as a result was constipated and unable to take in much milk when hungry. He was crying in Mum’s arms as she struggled to get him to drink 30 ml of milk, and then appeared in pain.

We entered the room and played a variety of suitable pieces from our repertoire. The doctors came by the room and went away again, encouraging us to stay as if to see what result might occur from our music…..we stayed about 15-20 mins. The baby calmed and Mum was able to lay him down for a rest. We left and went off to another ward where we worked for the rest of the morning.

On our way back through to break for lunch, we put our heads around the door of the room with Mum and baby. She reported that the little one had had a massive bowel movement, had taken some more milk, and had slept for the rest of the morning uninterrupted.

St George’s Day

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We were working on a ward in Leicester Hospital on Tuesday 23rd April and played our way round to a corner room where the door was wide open. Inside there was a little baby all dressed in green pyjamas. When he saw us he looked quite anxious – Who were these People? What were they carrying with them? And what were they going to do?

I was reminded of the training we had recently been doing with musicians in healthcare, and the ethics we had discussed. I knew I wanted to provide some nice music for this young man to enhance his stay in hospital, but was very aware I did not want to alarm him. He was in a very vulnerable position, with assisted breathing equipment, in a seated position in bed, with no adult he knew nearby.

We decided to play Twinkle, with no eye contact, just letting the music reach out to him and then observed his reactions. The music became part of his environment and more normal to him. He appeared to relax and began to smile intermittently.

My intention was then to help him feel more comfortable with us being there and thereby allow him access to more music and to enjoy himself.

Slowly, but surely, the smiling became more frequent, movement increased with stretching, reaching, sitting up and leg extensions – dancing as much as he could. He started to tip his head back, mouth wide in a silent laughter and caught my eye with glee – as if teasing me. Eye contact now not a threat to him, we shared quite long gazes.

I left him apparently relaxed and smiling and his nurse came by and shared the moment with us. I was reminded of how important eye contact is at the right time and with the right intensity, and felt so glad I had my training to help me make this interaction successful for this little baby and indeed a lovely experience for both of us.

Leicester Royal Infirmary (Children’s)