Winners 2020

Rosa Ungpakorn’s research has involved designing and leading the Westminster street nurse project, delivering on-the-spot advanced nursing care – clinical assessments, diagnosis and treatment – directly to the most vulnerable homeless people. Street outreach had been limited to signposting but now nurses assess a range of issues including infections, musculoskeletal pain, respiratory issues and parasitic infestations. They prescribe medication and basic wound care as well as referrals to mental health, midwifery, safeguarding and substance misuse services. Despite having no additional funding, the project has seen a 400% increase in the number of patients seen on street outreach, 80% of whom had not been accessing in-reach services.

Roald Dahl transition senior nurse specialist Ms Padmore Payne supports and empowers children and young people with non-malignant haematological conditions, such as sickle cell and thalassaemia, as they move to adult services. As well as providing young people with one-to-one guidance and advocacy, engaging this hard-to-reach group through social media, WhatsApp and video presentations, Ms Padmore-Payne tirelessly organises transition workshops, patient support groups and peer mentoring. She receives excellent feedback for her patient-led pathway and has also developed training and resources for her colleagues.

This team of nurses has put in place a range of measures to improve the support given to hundreds of people informally caring for someone with dementia. More than 500 carers have been visited in the community or hospital, with more than 370 using the peer support group. There is a dedicated support clinic for hospital staff who are also carers. The team’s intervention prevented more than 80 admissions in its first nine months. Carers themselves have driven the content of the team’s Carers Equip programme. Weekly training and support sessions, held in community centres, cover continence, end of life, resilience and well-being for carers as well as falls prevention.

The National Experimental Cancer Medicine Nurse Steering Group was concerned that nurse recruitment, gaps in undergraduate education and lack of awareness of the role of clinical research nurses would have an impact on early and late phase cancer research and the patients who might benefit from it. Steering group member Mr Hood volunteered to develop a pilot project to highlight the role of clinical research nurses in cancer services that could be used across the UK. He delivered education sessions to 2,000 students in north east England, and presentations for Edinburgh Napier University and is currently developing this work into an E-learning resource for undergraduate nurses in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research. There are plans to develop the work nationally.

Recognising that oral care was not being completed efficiently, lead clinical facilitator for supportive palliative care for care homes Marie Roberts created a working group with the dentistry team and persuaded an oral hygiene company to provide free and frequent training to 374 healthcare staff. Alongside her full-time role, she developed a teaching package and resource for each care home and district nursing team to help them assess, plan, manage and evaluate oral care issues. Her passion and the support she offered care home staff secured their engagement. Oral care across all the trust’s settings has improved, with the acute sector also adapting the work and sending staff for training.

Nursing sister Ana Waddington took action in frustration over the number of young people arriving at her emergency department as victims of serious youth violence. One teenager died unnecessarily because his friends were unaware they needed to apply pressure to his wound. Ms Waddington set up the YourStance project, which runs workshops that teach young people aged 13-25 lifesaving skills. She started with three volunteers using a manikin in Feltham Young Offenders Institution near London but now, in her own time, coordinates the 150 NHS volunteers she has recruited, including nurses, doctors and paramedics. Using her savings and working extra bank shifts to help fund the project, she has reached hundreds of young people.

The learning disability nurses at HMP Parc have transformed the experience of people with learning disabilities through their wide-ranging Cynnwys (inclusion) project. A specific wing has been developed to safeguard and support people with learning disabilities and autism spectrum conditions. A holistic and person-centred approach encompasses their education, complex health and sensory needs, including meaningful and therapeutic activities and behaviour management plans in a way never before achieved in a prison setting. The nurses have also built relationships to improve the transition from custody to community, and put safeguarding measures in place to reduce the risk of reoffending, harm and behaviours that challenge. 

Mr Brennan is committed to eliminating restraint and restrictive practices used on inpatients with mental ill health or learning disabilities throughout the UK and across the world. He inspires and encourages the use of other ways to minimise aggression and challenging behaviour while promoting safety and maintaining personal dignity for people who are in crisis on acute inpatient wards. Over the past 30 years he has created carers’ groups and benchmarks, delivered projects and research, undertaken inspections and chaired acute care forums. He is executive director for Star Wards – part of social justice charity Bright – providing practical ideas and sharing examples from and for mental health ward staff.

Temitope Babajide decided to undertake her elective in a regional hospital in Ghana, fundraising to ship medical equipment and supplies donated by her placement trust. Once there, as part of a service improvement project she gave a presentation on using gloves to nurses, colleagues and the wider multidisciplinary team, adapting resources from a gloves awareness conference she had attended at home. She helped run a sport event at a local orphanage and organised a widows’ event, which included a health check, empowerment session and free lunch. Through that screening, some patients received diagnosis of underlying conditions and are now receiving appropriate treatment.

As part of the learning disability team at Neath Port Talbot Hospital theatres, healthcare support worker Ms Pugh-Davies’ helps to maintain patient safety standards. These standards have dramatically improved her patients’ experience and health. She attends best interest meetings to ensure she knows people’s likes and dislikes before developing individualised care plans, going the extra mile to print favourite posters to display in theatres or sourcing favourite films or music to alleviate patients’ anxiety. Her precision planning and desensitisation saw one patient accept his surgery and make changes to his strict routine that have enhanced his quality of life.

James Birch was on a flight home from Thailand with his partner when he went into sudden cardiac arrest. He credits fellow passenger Isobel Corrie for saving his life, and has nominated her for the Patient’s Choice award. ‘Despite only recently having qualified, this brave young lady answered the call for help and pulled me back from a flat-line cardiac arrest,’ says Mr Birch. ‘In the cramped environment of a long- haul aircraft at 38,000 feet, she managed the small cabin crew team for 45 minutes until we could divert to a suitable airport. The emergency care she supervised was so thorough that despite the length of time the event continued for, I suffered very few health consequences.’

Service lead Melanie Pettitt’s commitment and vision have driven this multidisciplinary team’s integrated physical and mental health service, which has significantly improved the quality of life and end of life for care home residents. The team’s holistic approach puts care home residents and their families at the centre of all care, and its training has been delivered to more than 7,600 care home staff on 59 subjects. Emergency department admissions have plummeted and more than 8,400 hospital attendances have been avoided. All but 1% of residents died in their preferred place of death. Falls have been reduced and 39% of residents have had their medication reduced or stopped.