Research and IPC projects are shortlisted in prestigious Nursing Times Awards

Congratulations to two groups of colleagues whose projects have been shortlisted for this year’s Nursing Times Awards.

The awards bring together the nursing community to shine a light on the brightest talent in the profession and recognise those making nursing innovative, patient focused and inclusive.

The UHCW Research and Development Shared Decision-Making Council has been shortlisted in the Clinical Research Nursing awards category, which recognises the vital role of nurses in delivering high-quality clinical research.

The R&D SDM council, composed of non-clinical and clinical research staff from a diverse cultural background, acts as a platform to foster positive change through collaborative decision-making and improvement projects.

The council’s entry, ‘Enhancing research visibility – driving ideas to action’, describes its efforts to increase the visibility of research within University Hospital. These have included showcasing initiatives such as research on the Go trolleys in ward areas and ‘Research in Your Area’ events. The team is now planning to expand research training programme and empower staff to become ‘Research Ambassadors’.

Subie Scholz, research sister and chair of the R&D SDM Council, said: “It’s an amazing achievement for our entry to be shortlisted for the awards. The whole team is really excited.”

The Clean4Green initiative has been shortlisted in the Infection Prevention and Control category, which recognises projects that take an innovative approach to infection control.

Clean4Green, led by UHCW’s Infection Prevention and Control Team (IPCT), has been tackling the challenges of ensuring effective environmental cleaning in care homes. The IPCT hosted master classes for care home staff and produced an educational toolkit featuring adenosine triphosphate (ATP) technology.

Over an 18-month period, cohorts of care staff used the toolkit in their own settings. The toolkit contains an ATP machine, swabs, and documentation for using the IPCT’s ‘Swab, RAG, Act’ method which allowed care staff to ‘see’ surface contamination and engage in conversations about who, what and why cleaning should take place The initiative helped staff to understand the role surfaces play in transmitting infections to those they care for, themselves and their families.

Fiona Wells, Associate Director of Nursing – Infection Prevention and Control and co-investigator for the project, said: “This project was a joy to work on, building relationships with the care home services and ICB, whilst improving patient experience. It’s a fantastic way to demonstrate the chain of transmission for infection and place infection prevention at the forefront of minds."

Both project teams will need to give a presentation to the awards judges in September and the winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on Wednesday 23rd October.

You can find out more about the shortlisted projects on the Nursing Times Awards website.