Team NUH - Winners in multiple categories at this year's PEN National Awards! | Latest news

Team NUH - Winners in multiple categories at this year's PEN National Awards!

Following The Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA) ceremony, held on the 28th September 2022, we are delighted to share that 4 Team NUH projects were announced Winners and Runners Up in multiple categories!

Arts at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Winner – Environment of Care Award

External Ventricular Drains - D10 Shared Governance Council
Runner Up -
 Strengthening the Foundation Award 

Improving Our Colorectal Cancer Pathway Patient Experience 
Overall Winner PENNA 2022
Winner
 - Communicating Effectively with Patients and Families Award
Winner - Innovative Use of Technology, Social and Digital Media Award
Runner Up - Cancer Experience of Care Award
Runner Up - Patient Experience Professional of the Year Award (James Blackwell)
Runner Up - Team of the Year Award 

Revised Popper Gown Project - F22 Shared Governance Council
Winner
 - Strengthening the Foundation Award
Runner Up - Measuring, Reporting and Acting & Turning It Around Award
Runner Up - Staff Engagement, Improving Staff Experience and Medical Education for Healthcare Professionals Award

The PEN awards programme recognises best practice in patient experience across all facets of health and social care in the UK. Congratulations to all winners, as well as our other shortlisted projects this year:

  • Co-Producing Our Patient & Public Involvement Quality Improvement (PPI QI) Strategy and Plan
  • Maintaining Patient Dignity – The BAME Wig Project 
  • Building a Robust Hair Loss Service for Cancer Patients 

We are very proud of all teams behind these 7 projects and their fantastic achievements for Team NUH!

Further details of all shortlisted projects are included below.

Arts at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
The aim of this pilot project, by NUH and Nottingham Hospitals Charity, was to develop an arts provision at NUH that includes all forms of visual and participatory arts, to improve patient, carer and staff experience - primarily patients with dementia, Since the start of the pilot, a number of projects have been implemented including:

1) Visual Arts projects to improve the environment.
2) A music programme using music to support patients in daily care.
3) Introduction of a RITA device (Reminiscence Interactive Therapeutic Activities) on older persons and surgical wards.

This Arts at NUH initiative is accessible and available across the whole of our Trust. Whilst there has been a focus on improving the experience for patients with dementia and carers, other patients, staff, visitors and volunteers also benefit from the project. The programme is the first of its kind for NUH, with the work mentioned above being implemented in only 9 months.

Co-Producing Our Patient & Public Involvement Quality Improvement (PPI QI) Strategy and Plan
The ambitious aims of this project were:

• To embed co-production in all QI projects across the Trust as a move towards co-production being the default position
• For people to be involved in the co-design and co-production of QI work in a meaningful way, as a powerful voice alongside professionals 

Over the last 12 months, patient volunteers have been able to work side by side with staff on over 40 improvement projects, resulting in systematic culture changes that have enabled genuine co-production benefits and impacts. The success and learning from QI projects in 21/22 trialling prompted the development of the PPIQI plan as an enabler programme to support the delivery of the QI strategy by keeping patients, families and carers at the heart of what we do. Also, giving our patient volunteers the confidence to work in equal partnership with staff, shifting the balance of power to co-produce service redesign and transformation.

External Ventricular Drains- D10 Shared Governance Council
This project identified the need for education around the clinical management and care of External Ventricular Drains (EVD), following observation of colleagues in practice. As a result, using a simple but innovative method, blue pillowcases were introduced to identify those patients with an EVD. The shared governance council from D10 ward then went on to design and test a Nursing tool in the form of a sticker, which can be attached to the bed.

Through working with colleagues, this piece of work has been sustained in practice, and by sharing their work at Leadership Council, with Divisional colleagues and at the Shared Governance Annual Conference, has been disseminated and transferred to other clinical areas. This has subsequently led to patients not only benefitting from improved clinical care, but also an improved experience for colleagues who are non-clinical.  

Improving Our Colorectal Cancer Pathway Patient Experience 
The Colorectal Cancer Team's project aimed at improving patient experience, has seen them create bespoke, innovative and high-quality patient resources (booklet and animations) to guide and support patients through their treatment journeys. Many objectives and multilevel leadership have already benefitted from this project and regular feedback received from clinical champions within stakeholder working groups has reported a 23% increased positive response rate to patient experience surveys.

The resources are now in full clinical use and can all be updated in response to patient feedback and changes to clinical practice. Since roll-out the team have established regular patient experience feedback, staff are continuously consulted about the roll out progress and training is provided where necessary. Outputs from this project are fully transferrable across the UK colorectal cancer population and  other cancer groups, the team have also presented this project locally and are exploring dissemination possibilities via the colorectal expert clinical advisory group (ECAG) and Cancer Alliance.

Maintaining Patient Dignity – The BAME Wig Project 
The BAME shared governance council recognised the need for providing appropriate wigs for our BAME cancer patients who have experienced alopecia following chemotherapy treatment. Having received feedback about emotional trauma associated with the loss of respect and dignity because of being offered inappropriate wigs, the council wanted to restore patient dignity, thus resulting in this innovative project. 

The overall outcome has been the dissemination and the transferring of the project across the Trust to ALL patients suffering from alopecia, with the intention of sharing good practice regionally, nationally and internationally. Initially, the project was for patients from a minority ethnic background but it has now expanded to all patients making it inclusive to all who suffer with alopecia.

Building a Robust Hair Loss Service for Cancer Patients 
In 2020, a patient story was heard by NUH’s Trust Board detailing her experience of cancer services at NUH as a black women experiencing hair loss. From this account NUH was made aware of the lack of variety or choice of hair loss products for people from the BAME community. This issue was then picked up by the Trust’s Lead Cancer Nurse and a working group was formed to rectify this issue and to redesign the pathway with an aim of improving the patient experience and ensuring that the Hair Loss Service at NUH for cancer patients is quality assured and equitable.

This project brought key teams and professionals together across the Trust in a true collaboration; everyone involved shared their expertise freely to ensure this project incorporated best practices from clinical guidelines and corporate procedures whilst always keeping the Patient at the Centre of the pathway. From a single comment from one patient who experienced hair loss whilst under the care of the Trust, a complete pathway redesign was undertaken. From brand new evidence based information leaflets and staff training right through to ensuring a seamless procurement pathway for our local collaborative organisations. This project is an excellent example of taking a small seed and creating an inclusive and robust garden.

Revised Popper Gown Project
This project came about when the Chief Nurse encouraged Ward F22 shared governance council to create a gown that was fit for purpose, resulting in a Healthcare Support Worker demonstrating leadership and new thinking to alter the current hospital gown to have poppers on the sleeves, which decreases potential risk factors and improves line care, infection control and patient safety and experience.

The project was focused on and involved high acuity patient areas throughout the pandemic such as critical care, high dependency, level 1 wards and high demand line care areas with PICC lines and Hickman lines. Further research showed the gown was versatile to fit in with other specialities such as Maternity for skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding access, Emergency medicine, Orthopaedics, Healthcare of the Older Person and Ear, Nose and Throat care, making it an innovation transferable Trust wide. The Shared Governance model of clinical leadership was successfully demonstrated with an excellent outcome. 

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