General Practice & Community Nursing Award

Watch the video to find out who has won this prestigious nursing award. Good luck to all the finalists!

The finalists for the General Practice & Community Nursing Award

Ben Bowers
University of Cambridge
Ben Bowers was concerned about guidance that advocated prescribing injectable end of life drugs weeks or months in advance. The Queen’s Nurse’s systematic review found an inadequate evidence base and his rigorous research identified that GPs and community nurses were making decisions to prescribe the drugs weeks or months ahead of a person’s anticipated death. He has used his research to improve the safety of this prescribing practice through targeted social media, clinical conferences and workshops to get balanced information out to clinicians. He has also met senior directors at NHS England and the Care Quality Commission to discuss how his findings can inform the response to the Gosport War Memorial Hospital scandal.
 

Philippa Hynam
Coleridge Medical Centre
Nurse practitioner Philippa Hynam successfully planned, secured funding for, and implemented group consultations across five East Devon practices for adults with poorly-controlled type 2 diabetes. Patients were able to co-design their care and receive more support to self-manage their illness. She negotiated back fill payments so practice nurses could access training and supported them to deliver the pilot scheme. Blood pressure, HBa1c and weight averages have improved and patient satisfaction is high. Patients report feeling better supported and less isolated. Practice nurses have embraced the model and plan to upscale group consultations, reporting improved relationships and more time with patients.
 

Janet Keauffling
Abertawe Medical Partnership
The care of homeless people in Swansea has been transformed by Janet Keauffling’s hard work and unfaltering dedication over the past 15 years. Her comprehensive, flexible, non-judgemental outreach and in-surgery service covers health promotion and disease prevention, alcohol and drug misuse, and referrals for specialist services, such as sexual health. Her proactive approach engages hard-to-reach, chaotic patients with multiple needs. Evaluation shows the dramatic improvement she has made to people’s lives. She also offers daily shadowing and learning opportunities for colleagues, and regularly presents at conferences and multidisciplinary team meetings to ensure the voice of people who are homeless is heard.
 

Joyce Pickering
Cricketfield Surgery (Newton Abbott)
Nurse manager Joyce Pickering set up a nurse-led social prescribing model for patients needing support for non-medical problems, such as isolation, pre-diabetes and mental ill health. Her work enables patients to find their own solutions by giving them the right tools. She wrote a business plan, sourced training and consulted the patient participation group. The 12-week programme has seen participants lose up to 10% of body weight, an average reduction in HbA1c of 18% and a reduction in hypertension medication. Patients report feeling in control of their health and say they have more energy and motivation. The successful pilot is being developed for group consultations, including for isolated young mothers.
 

Marie Roberts
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
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.
 

Donna-Marie Thomas
Powys Teaching Health Board
Queen’s Nurse Donna-Marie Thomas has been nominated by her colleague for being the ‘driver, leader and visionary’ of Homeless Hope, a street care charity in South Wales. She drew on her own experience of living on the streets from the age of nine, after fleeing abuse, to build trusting relationships with disengaged and vulnerable rough sleepers. The 120-strong volunteers she leads treat swollen feet from continuous walking, calluses, dried skin, blisters that are often de-roofed, and trench foot in three Welsh cities. She collaborates with other voluntary services and ensures referral to secondary care when needed.