‘A WHOLE WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY’

Scores of NHS trusts have started vital and innovative projects to improve care after receiving cash from the Nursing Technology Fund. Petra Kendall-Raynor reports

NOTICE BOARD

Last year, NHS England announced that 74 trusts had been awarded a total of around £30 million from the Nursing Technology Fund. This is for projects to support nurses, midwives and health visitors make better use of digital technology for safer, more effective and efficient care. Nurses and other healthcare professionals at these trusts are now getting projects up and running. Learning disability clinical nurse specialist and Queen’s Nurse Vanessa Hurley successfully obtained funding from Devon Partnership NHS Trust and the Nursing Technology Fund. The trust received £103,215 to equip nurses with iPads to assist communication with people who have learning disabilities. It also wanted the devices to help involve patients in their care, including creating their own care plans. ‘I used to take my own iPad to work and found it created a whole new world of opportunity. I wanted other nurses to have the same experience so I put in a bid for funding,’ says Ms Hurley.

Nurse specialist Vanessa Hurley (left) works on a tablet with a young client

‘For example, if someone with a learning disability also has epilepsy, they can create their personal profile with an app that covers everything from triggers to medication. ‘For patients who cannot actually touch the iPad, there are sound apps that help them to communicate. Also, nurses now have instant access to the latest research and policy,’ explains Ms Hurley. There are currently 136 iPads available to learning disability teams across the trust. Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was

Mental health Barts & The London Psychiatry: State of the Art Congress will be held on March 4 at the Robin Brook Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE. The congress will bring together the best psychiatric research from international experts, ranging from genomics to public health. There will be presentations by both experts and junior researchers. There is no charge for attendance, but delegates are required to register. See tinyurl.com/BartsMH Presentation skills Healthcare Events will host a masterclass on presentation skills and public speaking for nurses on March 16 in central London. The class will be led by Becky Simpson and David Schaal, co-directors of Playout, a drama-based training company. Participants will be able

awarded £88,000 from the fund to help with an electronic pre-operative assessment project.

Assessment technology

Karen Kinnear, associate business unit director and senior nurse in theatres, critical care and anaesthetics, wanted to use Synopsis IQ technology for pre-operative assessments. ‘Patients are given a device such as an iPad for their pre-operative assessment questionnaire, and their personal and health information is fed into an electronic patient record.’

to practise their presentation skills and receive constructive feedback. They will also consider the impact of non-verbal and verbal communication and the use of visual aids. Nursing Standard readers can claim a 20 per cent discount by quoting HCUK20RCN when booking. See tinyurl.com/HCPSM Primary care Westminster Health Forum will be holding a morning seminar on primary care and the developing role of the GP on February 12 in central London. The event will focus on the implications of the additional £1.1 billion for GP services announced in the autumn statement, the Care Quality Commission’s ratings of GP services, changes to the GP contract in April and the new models of care set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View. See tinyurl.com/ WHFPHCfuture

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CAREERS

Petra Kendall-Raynor is a freelance journalist RESOURCES Overview of the Nursing Technology Fund (NTF) tinyurl.com/NTFNHSE NTF-funded projects 2013/14 tinyurl.com/NTFprojects Synopsis IQ : digital preoperative assessment tinyurl.com/SynopsisIQ

Dame June Clark hopes the travel grants she is offering nurses will improve care. Frances Pickersgill spoke to her

Broadening horizons A nursing professor is funding a travel scholarship to help nurses in Wales increase their understanding of practice in other parts of the world. Dame June Clark, emeritus professor of community nursing at Swansea University, said: ‘I want nurses in Wales to have the benefits I was given when I was a student and throughout my nursing career – to travel and meet nurses from other countries. ‘What I learned opened my eyes and has influenced my ideas about nursing in so many ways. I think UK nurses could learn a lot from nursing in other parts of the world.’ One of the areas about which Professor Clark feels strongly, and that she hopes to see reflected in the first round of applications, is nursing informatics, especially the use of electronic patient records and standardised terminology. ‘I want to see electronic health records that support practice and enable nursing data to be used to identify outcomes. ‘I also want to see projects and learning about the care of older people and, of course, my particular interest – community nursing,’ Professor Clark says. Since this is a new scholarship, there is some flexibility in the number of awards and the amount to be awarded in each, but it is likely to be up to £500 per scholarship.

Calendar The Queen’s Nursing Institute has nursing heritage wall calendars for sale. The calendars feature nursing photographs from the early years of the NHS that were rediscovered last year. They show nurses at work in London and Norfolk. The calendar also includes cartoons from the Queen’s Nurses’ Magazine during the first world war and questions from 100-year-old Queen’s Nurse exam papers. Calendars are £5 plus £1 p&p. www.qni.org.uk/shop Antibiotics More than 8,000 healthcare professionals and 3,500 members of the public have pledged to help reduce antibiotic resistance. The Antibiotic Guardian was launched by Public Health England as part of European Antibiotic Awareness

JOHN HOULIHAN

According to InformaticsCIS, the company behind the system, Synopsis IQ was designed by anaesthetists and nurses. All information about the patient, including test results and risk scores, is visible to whoever is working with the patient. Ms Kinnear says the system helps nurses with data collection and any further analysis of pre-operative assessments. If a nurse is in one of the clinic rooms, all the information can be seen on screen. Information that previously was held in different locations will now be on a single system. If a patient returns for a second visit, all the information is still available. ‘We see it as a much safer system for patients – information is less likely to disappear and staff are free to spend more time with patients,’ says Ms Kinnear. ‘Technology is the way forward’ NS

Dame June Clark: ‘Travel opened my eyes’

Applications for the scholarship are invited from nurses working in Wales who hold a statutory nursing qualification or from students undertaking an approved course in Wales leading to a statutory nursing qualification are also invited to apply. Preference will be given to applicants who are early in their nursing careers NS Application forms are available from [email protected] or by writing to June Clark: [email protected]. The closing date for applications is March 18

Day. The campaign encourages more people to make pledges to save antibiotics. Pledges include reminding patients to take the full course of antibiotics and to take them at prescribed intervals. See tinyurl.com/ABGuardian Bursaries The RCN Foundation Professional Bursary Scheme will be launched in February with a closing date in April. Bursaries are worth up to £5,000 to support nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants in learning and development activities that enhance patient care, patient experience and development in nursing practice. The bursaries are offered for activities that focus on primary care nursing and/or long-term/chronic conditions. See tinyurl.com/RCNPBS

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'A whole world of opportunity'.

Last year, NHS England announced that 74 trusts had been awarded a total of around £30 million from the Nursing Technology Fund. This is for projects ...
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