Inspiring Excellence - Nursing Innovation and Research Award

Nursing and midwifery staff are inspiring excellence on a daily basis with innovative practice and clinical research leading to positive change for patients, service users and colleagues.

Open to registered nurses and midwives who have improved the care of people through innovation, research and transformation. This award aims to recognise those who have influenced change with a measurable impact on outcomes and/or experience.

Nurses or midwives working in research, service transformation or who have introduced innovative practice. This can be within the NHS, Higher/Further education or the independent sector.

Airdrie CMHT, Airdrie Health Centre, NHS Lanarkshire

Lisa’s idea for this new service grew from handing a patient a paper form and being told ‘my life is on my phone, I’ll never remember that’. The Digital Safety Plan (DSP) supports patients to use their own mobile devices to store a DSP that they create. The digital version is designed to be customised and personalised by the patient. Innovative uses of music, sensory aids, symbols, photos and pictures means that this service is fully accessible to people of all literacy levels. The DSP creates a collaborative dialogue between clinicians and patients, being trauma informed and recovery focussed. Working with colleagues across NHS Lanarkshire, Lisa used her personal time to drive this innovation forward to a point where the benefit could be presented to senior management. Lisa is proud to see the innovation delivering on both national digital health strategy outcomes and national suicide prevention strategy outcomes. Lisa would like to use the project to highlight the how mush nurses can achieve when they believe in what they do.

Gender Based Violence and Sexual Assault Service Lead (Hazel) / Psychological Therapies Team Lead (Jennie), Adult Psychological Therapy Service, NHS Forth Valley

Equal partners in this nurse led project, Hazel and Jennie developed a trauma informed cervical screening programme across NHS Forth Valley primary care, secondary care and specialist services for women who have experienced sexual trauma. Their aim was to improve the experience of cervical screening for women who have experienced sexual violence, encouraging them to attend, and also to develop resources and improvements across healthcare to understand the impact of trauma and the need for a higher level of support. Championing multi-disciplinary working, they developed links between smear takers and specially trained trauma therapists to ensure safety before, during and after procedures. They also developed partnerships with Reslience Learning Partnership, their Gender Based Violence Team, and other key health professionals to develop their services. Their work has been promoted at a Public Health Scotland event which led to commitments to change wording on literature and campaigns. They have also delivered events across all Forth Valley GP practices and have been invited to speak with leaders at a NES event on how to operationalise trauma informed services. Hazel and Jennie’s goal is to see this work become a formal research project which highlights the multiple roles that nurses’ play and the difference it can make in improving health and outcomes.

Senior Research Nurse, Western General Hospital, NHS Lothian

Described by colleagues as a committed and passionate research nurse, Vivienne led a project on the Patient Trials Advocacy Service, funded by Make 2nds Count (a charity supporting people with breast cancer). The service aims to raise awareness of trials, educate and empower patients to talk to clinicians about trials and also to match patients with trails that might be appropriate for them. Two years in and the service has now expanded with additional staff, however Vivienne is working to ensure that the service is still personalised to each individual patient. This innovative service is the first of its kind in the UK and Vivienne is never shy in promoting the benefits of the service and it’s ability to delivery a key outcome of the national cancer strategy – improving ease of access to clinical trials. Working with Maggie’s and Breast Cancer Now, she has delivered countless sessions for patients and professionals across the UK. Vivienne sees this project as a success not only for herself and the charity which funded it, but for people in Scotland with breast cancer.

If you have any questions or queries regarding the awards, please get in touch by emailing scotlandnurseawards@rcn.org.uk

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NHS Grampian provides healthcare to more than 500,000 people across Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Moray. Its largest hospital is Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, providing acute care and home to Scotland's ECMO centre. The board also has a dedicated maternity hospital, children's hospital, mental health & learning disability inpatient facility, a district general hospital in Elgin and multiple community hospitals. As well as a vast array of community services. It is a 'teaching' board with ties to both University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University.  

Notably, NHS Grampian is the largest employer in the northeast of Scotland, with a headcount of 16,926 employees, 42% are employed within the Nursing and Midwifery directorate. NHS Grampian is striving to attain Magnet designation; the Magnet Recognition programme designates organisation's worldwide where nursing leaders successfully align their nursing strategic goals to improve the organisation’s patient outcomes. To nurses and midwives this means education and development through every career stage, which leads to greater autonomy at the bedside. To patients, it means the very best care, delivered by nurses and midwives who are supported to be the very best that they can be. In a recent staff survey, effective teamwork was considered the main reason for making NHS Grampian a truly great place to work! #proudtobenhsg