This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Nurses win awards for patient care
14/09/2005
Teams of nurses in five areas of Scotland have today received a share of £14,000 for work they have done to improve services for patients in their areas.
The top award of £10,000 went to Elizabeth Cushley, of Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, for work to develop strategies to improve the nutrition of frail or elderly people while they were in hospital. Under-nutrition in older people in hospital settings is known to complicate illness, delay recovery and prolong hospital stay.
Now NHS Fife is to spread Ms Cushley's good practice across the Board with posters, leaflets, study day presentations and patient/carer information leaflets all in the pipeline.
Presenting the awards at the Nursing Times Live Exhibition in Glasgow, Health Minister Andy Kerr said:
"The NHS across Scotland never stops coming up with ways to improve patient care and deliver services in modern ways.
"But as important as coming up with innovative ways to treat and care for patients, we need to encourage staff to put those lessons into operation on the ground as soon as possible.
"That's what these awards are about - to recognise individual nurses and nursing teams who have done great work in putting latest evidence into practice, so that patients can get the best, most up to date care.
"And by highlighting the great work done by these teams, we want to see the NHS across Scotland take this work forward, and implement these practices everywhere."
Four runners-up each received an award of £1,000 each. They were:
AYR - for work to empower staff to deliver high quality care to terminally ill patients and their families.
Linda Kerr of Ayr Hospital has supported the implementation of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) by translating of national guidelines on care of terminally ill patients into clinical practice. The Hospital's Palliative Care Team are now looking to disseminate the use of the LCP into other wards.
DUNDEE - for pioneering work in oxygen and humidification therapy.
Vicki Tully and Chris Lawrey of Ninewells Hospital in Dundee developed the project in response to recognised differences in practice in relation to choice of oxygen masks, flow rates, the use of equipment and the prescription of oxygen therapy and monitoring and evaluating therapies. The outcomes of the project included preparing an educational pack on the use of oxygen and humidification equipment.
EDINBURGH - work on follow-up care for colorectal cancer patients.
Gillian Knowles, Gail Dean and Linda Sherwood at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre have piloted the introduction of nurse-led follow-up care for cancer patients and have shown that patients can benefit greatly from this care. Now NHS Lothian will evaluate the service, along with an economic analysis in order to assess the feasibility of rolling the project out further.
GLASGOW - for services to women and families affected by mental illness during pregnancy and the first postnatal year.
Karen Robertson, Dr Roch Cantwell, Clare Donnelly, Marie Rooney and John Walker of the Glasgow Perinatal Mental Health Service, which is the first of its kind in Scotland, allows women to receive appropriate treatment for their mental illness, whilst being able to maintain and develop their parenting role and relationship with their infant. Lessons learned from the service are currently being disseminated through presentations at conferences and seminars across NHS Board areas in Scotland.
The money can be used to further develop practice locally, to support educational and developmental initiatives that will promote wider dissemination of good practice.
Applicants for the Nursing Times Evidence into Practice Awards were asked to describe an area of their practice that had changed as a result of applying research evidence and the subsequent outcome for patients.
There were 22 applicants which represented a whole range of clinical practice and came from all parts of the country. Some were individuals others from teams.