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CNO Bulletin July 2021

A message from the CNO - Professor Nina Morgan

Welcome to July’s issue of the CNO Bulletin.

I wanted to start once again by acknowledging the incredible attitude and the quality of work which you continue to show on a daily basis. It’s been a difficult year and a half, and the coming weeks and months are going to be a crucial time for all of us. National restrictions being lifted for the public means new challenges will come our way, it also offers us a chance to meet those challenges and to showcase the countless Examples of #ExcellenceAtUHCW which we’re so proud to show off.

In this month’s issue of the CNO Bulletin, our focus is around our Pathway to Excellence. We’re going to look at the upcoming UHCW Pathway to Excellence mock survey which will replicate the real thing next year - something which all NMC Registrants will be asked to complete.

We’re also going to have a deep dive into the NHS’ 73rd birthday, which we celebrated across the Trust with The Big Tea. We have a very special DAISY Award update to bring you our first honouree to receive a ‘double award’!

IN THIS ISSUE

Supporting Our Learning Environments: The New Practice Development Team (PDT) Educational Rounding Tool

A positive learning environment and culture are essential components of a teaching hospital and must be the cornerstone of practice to enable learners to be valued and supported to develop. It should be embedded within organisations to support quality placements. By creating a positive learning culture it will ensure that students are fostered and nurtured to reach their true potential and in so develop their confidence, skills and knowledge in readiness for the registered nurse’s role. Positive learning culture and environment is one of the key elements of the Pathway to Excellence® framework and is pivotal to a successful transitioning experience for new NMC registrants and the retention of our staff.

To support our learning environments at UHCW, the Practice Development Team (PDT) has recently developed an Educational Rounding Tool which is designed to support and gauge key components the learning environment. The team is utilising this tool to work in partnership with the clinical areas to enhance learner and staff experience. In addition we aim to offer professional development opportunity to our staff that are supporting our learners in practice, in their assessing and supervisory capacity so that we can continue to improve and grow as an organisation.

The Educational Rounding Tool is currently being rolled out across the Trust, commencing in June 2021, to give baseline information with a view to this being part of the standard work of the PDT. The rounding tool is undertaken by two members of the PDT and takes about one and a half hours to complete. The results are fed back and discussed with ward managers. Agreed actions and resources between the ward manager and the PDT are developed and key themes, challenges and celebrations are collated and added to the teams’ production board.

The Education Rounding tool focuses on the 15 Steps Challenge when walking onto a practice environment:

  • Staff showcasing and promoting the Trust's values
  • Support of learners in practice
  • Scope of practice of different learner groups
  • Cultures of compassionate care
  • Our Pathway to Excellence® journey
  • Ward Accreditation
  • Staff training and education needs
  • Open discussions with the staff about learner assessment,
  • Continued Professional Development (CPD) opportunities
  • Key messages and any further support identified

So far this has been invaluable allowing us to work in collaboration with areas to promote and support learners’ experience.

For further information please contact Heather Price, Practice Development Lead.

Free Pathway to Excellence Webinars

Our focus in July – a month where the sun is shining and football (almost) came home – is all around our Pathway to Excellence, and specifically the mock survey which will be released to all NMC Registrants.

This mock version of next year’s survey offers us an opportunity to do two things. Firstly, it gives us a chance to listen to you on a scale which isn’t possible in our day-to-day work. We want to hear what you have to say and bring in changes which will improve your satisfaction, opportunities and wellbeing.

Secondly, it will help all of us understand what next year’s survey will be like and if there are any ways we can improve this process to maximise what you get out of the Pathway to Excellence Survey in 2022.

Your continued support and engagement with our Pathway to Excellence journey isn’t something which has been overlooked and below we’ve got a pre-recorded webinar with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) about Pathway to Excellence.

http://send.ana.org/link.cfm?r=obmKiUOPyvvVt6DUe7e6Kw~~&pe=1aR2BvvHWmtS8kWKiYc20LGL_WeFpXpGw2CXfBwLfLJQ8jxRqyUc-H93PstSYoR8&t=AV3KnZAeANiXcUsZOqTDhA~~

Making Your Way in Research: Free Webinars

As well as accessing Pathway to Excellence webinars, you can also see a range of free online webinars from the National Insitute of Health Research (NIHR).

The next webinar on the NIHR calander is around the impact of the 70@70 programme on undergraduate students and it's one of seven webinars which will be available over the coming months.

If you want the see which webinars are still available to register for, click here.

Our Quality and Safety Reset, Safer Administration of Intravenous Medications

Earlier this year, Nursing and Midwifery at UHCW decided to undertake a quality and safety reset event over 2 days in April, with the aim of getting out into wards and departments Trust-wide to talk to staff and observe elements of practice and quality patient care. This provided an opportunity to agree and develop key areas to focus our improvement work. Engaging with direct care nursing and midwifery teams during the day and night to listen to and understand some of the challenges they are facing, whilst determining what else we need to offer to staff to support their wellbeing, learning and professional development.

Themes included:

  • Safety issues regarding medicines management
  • Training and development opportunities for night staff
  • Challenges to quality nursing documentation and associated actions
  • Infection prevention and control and upkeep of local cleaning standards
  • Challenges in staff being able to access ICT systems
  • Opportunity to improve visibility of leadership rounding and the use of focus boards

At our Nursing and Midwifery Care Quality Forum we agreed to focus on the medicines management theme first, as it had been evident from our observations and discussion with nursing teams there was opportunity for improvement, removal of waste and to ensure we are delivering safe care in this area of practice, particularly the administration and preparation of intravenous medicines.

Following feedback from direct care nursing and midwifery staff, we are currently working on a number of actions:

  • Producing a “Quick Guide” for managing medicines errors
  • Developing and proposing a trial of single nurse intravenous medicines administration (for specific groups of medicines to adult patients only)
  • Trialing a trolley that can be used to prepare/draw up IV medicines nearer to patients, to aid visibility and safety of patients when preparing these drugs
  • Pharmacy are also exploring the use of some pre-mixed antibiotics (the most commonly used in our Trust), which would save time in preparing IV medications on the ward

If you’d like to get involved in improving medicines safety or any other aspect of care identified as part of the Quality and Safety Reset, please get in contact with Emma Fish, Associate Director of Nursing, Quality and Patient Safety on Emma.Fish@uhcw.nhs.uk.

Getting to Know Our Nursing Team - Vicky Parker: Practice Facilitator, Practice Development

Hi Vicky, can you tell us a little bit about your career to date?

I began my nursing career as a student nurse at the University of Nottingham in 2010. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to undertake an undergraduate Masters course, which meant that I was a student nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals for four years. I have very fond memories of my training there.

When I graduated, I moved to Coventry and began my qualified career as a staff nurse in Critical Care here at UHCW. I worked across both Cardiothoracic Critical Care and General Critical Care before applying for a Clinical Sisters post a few years later. I thoroughly enjoyed my role and am so proud to have worked as part of such a fantastic team, but in 2019 felt it was time for a new challenge.

I’m passionate about driving improvement and promoting a positive practice environment, so applied for a position in the Practice Development Team. My job is different every single day, which I love! We support learners in practice, CPD training and education, student nurses and nursing associates on placement, the international nurse recruitment programme, the Trust’s nurse preceptorship programme and the organisations Pathway to Excellence® journey.

Working with and coaching staff as part of my role to develop our Shared Decision Making councils are something I’m incredibly passionate about. The platform Shared Decision Making presents for our nursing and midwifery workforce and the opportunities for professional and leadership development is really exciting.

Alongside your role within the organisation in supporting Shared Decision Making Councils, you also sit on the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s National Professional Shared Decision Making Council. What does this entail?

The CNO Professional Shared Decision Making Council is a group of nurses from all over the country with completely different clinical backgrounds and we meet virtually once a month - we’ve never actually met in person! We decide our agenda, for example over the last 12 months we’ve had a large focus on driving national support and guidance for Trusts and organisations redeploying nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals as part of the Covid-19 pandemic response. We often invite subject matter experts or national leaders to our meetings, so that we can ask questions about current activity and have opportunity to influence the national agenda with real time feedback from the frontline.

Ensuring appropriate upskilling, wellbeing support and planning/infrastructure are all in place for staff redeployment is incredibly important to me, both as a Practice Facilitator, but also as a Critical Care nurse. Having been through two redeployments to Critical Care over the last 18 months to support colleagues during peaks and surges of the pandemic, it’s an issue very close to my heart. Working with national leaders to influence the development of national nursing skills passports has been really exciting.

How can our nursing and midwifery staff get involved in Shared Decision Making and our Pathway to Excellence® journey?

So many ways! Most clinical areas will have access to a Shared Decision Making Council by autumn of this year. So keep an eye out for posters in your area when we’re launching a council, or find out what council members in your area are already up to and working on.

We’re also currently launching our Pathway to Excellence® Ambassador role, which is a really exciting opportunity. We’re looking for experienced nurses and midwives to become a part of our extended Pathway team and network. The ambassador role includes lots of opportunity for professional development and CPD and will play a crucial part in how we engage our teams in our journey to designation.

If it’s something you’re interested in or would like more information on, just email PathwayToExcellenceUHCW@uhcw.nhs.uk

Outpatients – The Perfect Week

The week of the 19th July will see a focus on Outpatients efficiency, entitled “The Perfect Week”.

The Perfect Week is about spending focused energy on identifying and removing the blocks to delivering a highly efficient service.

For Outpatients this means:

  • Fully utilising every clinic and having a patient booked in every slot 
  • Minimising DNA’s 
  • Starting clinics on time 
  • Finishing on time.

Operational and clinical staff will meet every morning in the ‘Main Outpatients’ atrium and be available to problem solve in real-time. An extra effort will be made to ensure all clinic slots are fully booked and there will be a radio campaign to encourage patients to keep their appointments.

Clinical staff are asked to contribute by unblocking problems that may stop clinics from starting on time and feeding back problems on the day or by emailing OutpatientPW@uhcw.nhs.uk.

Every day during the perfect week we will consolidate frequently asked questions, common problems and lessons learned - sharing this with colleagues each morning staff can track progress via daily TrustNav updates.

DAISY Awards Update

Katie Campbell, Clinical Sister on Ward 23 Gynaecology, became our first honouree to receive two DAISY Awards during one ceremony. This double dose of recognition occurred due to Katie's initial ceremony being postponed and her 'amazing' approach to patient care on Ward 23 being acknowledged for a second time.

DAISY Awards, funded and supported by the UHCW Charity, recognise the inspiring work of our nurses and midwives.

Katie's first nomination, left by an NHS worker of 35 years, read: "Katie stood out from the very first moment. She spent time with everyone here and I really felt she went the extra mile to get to know us. She remembered the names of the people important to me and asked after my grandson who was also in hospital every day."

Her second nomination was from a young woman undergoing a hysterectomy.

"She chatted to me every day she was in work and was the one consistent person when all the doctors I saw were different every day," the nomination read. "Katie also chatted to me like a friend I'd always known. She is an exceptional nurse with amazing leadership qualities. She is clearly passionate about her job."

We look forward to being able to present more DAISY awards to our extraordinary nurses and midwives.

Could you be our next honouree?

Celebrations: The Big Tea

The NHS celebrated its birthday on 5th July and staff at UHCW were invited to join in the celebrations by hosting a tea party in their clinical area to raise funds for their ward/department.

The NHS Big Tea is an event created through the NHS Charities Together Group. It is the national charity partner of the NHS and is made up of 240 NHS charity members based with hospitals, mental health, ambulance and community health services across the UK. The funds raised by NHS Charities Together enable the health service to go above and beyond what would otherwise be possible.

The initiative was supported by our very own UHCW Charity who supplied party packs for staff to kick off the event in their area. The packs included plates, balloons, bunting, napkins and Just Giving links to get started. A bake-off competition was held at 12.30pm with Chief Executive Officer, Professor Andy Hardy offering to taste those cakes entered. In the run up to the event the UHCW Charity shop invited staff to come in and pose with a selfie frame and sign up to the charity’s mailing list. Staff would then be entered into a prize draw to win an overnight stay at Coombe Abbey Hotel.

As well as joining in national celebrations, we've also got a couple of updates which we want to shout about closer to home. I'm proud to announce two valued members of our team have taken up new positions within the Trust.

Fiona Wells will be welcomed to the substantive IPC Lead Nurse role following excellent leadership throughout the Covid pandemic, and Paula Seery to Associate Director of Nursing (workforce) on secondment from her role as Matron within the highly successful Covid-19 vaccination programme.

 

Workstream Leads and Change Partners required for EPR Programme

We now have key project management roles open, working in collaboration with all of our clinical groups across the Trust. Workstream Leads and Change Partners will work alongside the clinical teams to facilitate the review of current informational pathways and processes, and help to drive the design of the new, relevant EPR modules for each group. For full job descriptions and how to apply, please visit our page on TrustNav (link below) or email EPR.Recruitment@uhcw.nhs.uk.

http://trustnav/news/workstream-leads-and-change-partners-required-for-epr-programme/

Save the Date - Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Summit: 27th October 2021

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