Tissue Viability Service Nurse awarded Mölnlycke Scholarship Award 2015
A Coventry nurse has landed a top national nursing award thanks to her dedication to care.
Lauren Thorpe, a Wound Care Sister with Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust’s Tissue Viability Service, was awarded the 2015 Novice Scholarship Award by Mölnlycke Health Care Wound Academy in May.
The award was presented by Dr David Foster, Head of the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Professions Policy Unit at the Department of Health.
The Tissue Viability Service provides specialist wound management advice to residents living in Coventry and registered with a Coventry GP. They also offer clinical wound assessments, home visits, wound clinics and wound management training.
Lauren recently transitioned into the Tissue Viability Team from a District Nurse role, after being inspired by the work of Tissue Viability Teams she had worked with previously.
The judges were impressed with a project undertaken by Lauren and her team, in which they supported District Nurses by integrating their teams to support best practice.
This project led to a significant reduction in pressure ulcers, and improved clinical assessments and treatments for patients. The rate of pressure ulcers, including new pressure ulcers, has now dropped below the national average according to the NHS Safety Thermometer data.
The NHS Safety Thermometer is a point of care survey and data analysis tool that collects monthly data on all patients for avoidable afflictions like pressure ulcers, falls and urine infections. It also collects data for the proportion of patients who are ‘harm free’.
Serious incident reports for pressure ulcers have been falling across the Trust as well.
Pressure ulcers can cause considerable suffering for patients, and are also very costly in terms of resources, with grade 3 ‘deep’ ulcers costing an estimated £40,000 to treat.
Most pressure ulcers develop before the patient comes into contact with the healthcare system, and a significant number develop in care homes.
With this in mind, the Tissue Viability Team have also been raising awareness with a social media campaign featuring the ‘Heel Hero’ character (@HeelHero), and have become the first service within Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust to have their own Twitter account (@CWPT_TVN).
They have also been maintaining a Facebook page dedicated to tissue viability, including training resources and useful information, to better reach practice nurses and nursing homes within Coventry and Rugby. (https://www.facebook.com/CWPTtissueviability/)
Lauren said that “A lot of nurses around Coventry are using Facebook, but are still a bit apprehensive about Twitter”.
“[Receiving the award was] a little bit overwhelming, and I also felt like I was given credit for what we have done as a team. I’ve led on the social media, but the work that’s ongoing for pressure ulcers is something we’ve all done.
“We won the award for the social media work because it’s innovative, and because it’s where we want to go to engage with people. What we’re trying to achieve is drive traffic towards the website and to promote the service.”
Louise McKeeney, Head of Service for Tissue Viability and Wound Clinics, said: “I am delighted that Lauren has won this award. We are all very proud of her, and we are very excited about the scholarship.
“Lauren will be using the scholarship to increase the use of social media within the service to promote the service and communicate further with the community nurses within Coventry.”
Annette Bird, Community Team Manager for the service, said: “Lauren’s motivation and passion to improve services is outstanding, so the award is fitting.
“This is brilliant recognition for the service and demonstrates integrated working at its best.”