Hospital nurse wins prestigious award for outstanding service 

A children’s nurse at University Hospitals Dorset has won The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Award, for her continued passion for community nursing.

Josie Roberts was nominated by colleagues and the families she works closely with for her leadership of the team and dedication to those she supports.

The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Award for Outstanding Service is awarded by the Queens Nursing Institute to community nurses who provide exceptional care to their patients and demonstrate a continuing passion and enthusiasm for nursing.

Josie is clinical lead for the community nursing team, with a base at Poole Hospital. The team aims to support children within their family environment, by minimising hospital admission and ensuring if they do need to stay in hospital, they can go home quickly.

They work closely with schools, GPs, hospices, social services, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

Josie said: “It means the world to me to get this award. The community team does excellent work and my role is to help keep staff, children and families safe. This award gives the whole community team a massive boost and I am honoured to receive it. I can’t wait to see what exciting work the team does next.”

Wellness workshop for stoma patients

The stoma team at Poole Hospital recently held a Wellness Workshop for patients that have had abdominal surgery within the last two years and have stoma’s.

Around 50 patients came along and were able to try a variety of activities to improve their wellness.  Patients booked onto as many of the activities like yoga, creative art, mindfulness, mediation, and Pilates as they wanted and were also able to the team throughout the day about practical support and advice on things like nutrition.

Tracy Lees on of the stoma team said: “ We were thrilled with how our first Wellness Workshop has gone was a huge success and the feedback has been terrific and we wanted to share some of the quotes from our patients regarding what they most enjoyed on the day:

“Meeting new friends trying yoga for the first time” “Meeting people with similar problems” “Good friendly sound advice” “Only months from my op and found mixing a real confidence boost” “Support and Activities” “talking to the Fittleworth  lady” “learning new things” “making friends with others who understand."

University Hospitals Dorset's acting chief medical officer is 'clinician of the year'.

Dr Ruth Williamson received the 'working with finance – clinician of the year' accolade at the HFMA National Healthcare Finance Awards 2022. 

The awards programme recognises the work of finance teams and individuals from across the UK, and covers fundamental aspects of finances including the production of the accounts, costing, governance, training and development, as well as the vital area of innovation. Crucially, given the importance of spreading financial awareness outside of finance departments, the awards also focus on the importance of engaging clinicians in financial management.

Dr Williams was recognised for her work in supporting UHD and local NHS partners in the Outpatient Assessment Clinic at Poole's Beales department store, created to help tackle the backlog of waiting lists caused by the pandemic, and increase the volume of life-saving screening as part of Dorset’s 'Think Big' initiative.

"I really enjoyed yesterday evening and was delighted to win the award on behalf of UHD and colleagues at Dorset ICS who have supported the Outpatient Assessment Clinic at Dorset Health Village" said Ruth.

"Whilst the award names one clinician I'm proud that our team of multiple clinicians and managers was able to work so closely and effectively with our finance colleagues to deliver real benefit to patients in a cost-effective way. Its a privilege to accept the award on their behalf."

"The Health Village concept was about getting patients seen and doing as much for them as possible in a single visit. Whilst it originated in Covid recovery plans, more and more teams are looking at changing the way they run face to face outpatient clinics, whilst others are looking to find ways to fairly deliver care with telephone and video consultations. Our partners in Livewell Dorset and ActiveDorset ensure that we are looking at wider determinants of health than a single diagnosis, and a fabulous team of volunteers ensure that clinics run smoothly and that our patients are supported. These benefits are here to stay."

acting chief medical officer, Ruth Williamson

A volunteer guides patients in the Outpatient Assessment Clinic

Hospital exercise classes improve quality of life

Exercise classes at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) have been proven to increase patients’ walking distances and their quality of life.

The classes support patients with intermittent ‘claudication’ - a muscle pain that happens when you're active and stops when you rest. The aim is to improve a patient’s  lower limb blood supply, cardiac function, and inform them of the risk factors associated with peripheral arterial disease.  

Currently in a trial phase, the NICE recommended classes are for patients of vascular services at the Bournemouth Heart Club at the  Royal Bournemouth Hospital (RBH), with the plan to continue a series of weekly sessions.

Advanced nurse practitioner, Claire Thomson, said: “Claudication is a debilitating condition caused by narrowing or blockages of the arteries, supplying oxygenated blood to the legs. Patients experience cramp /aching type pains to the calves/thighs when they walk causing them to stop and rest before continuing on again. The classes have been established for the past 25 years at RBH, aiding many patients to improve their walking distances and reduce risk factors for peripheral and cardiovascular disease over the years.

“We have recently been able to move our classes to the Bournemouth Heart Club which is a purpose built gym facility on the grounds of RBH. The gym facility allows us to invite more patients to attend in a spacious, well-equipped safe area with free accessible parking.  We have already seen some improved outcomes since we started the classes several months ago.”

In order to be assessed for claudication symptoms, a patient will need to see their GP or healthcare practitioner in the first instance, who will perform an assessment and refer them if needed to the vascular nurse practitioner team. If symptoms are suggestive of claudication the patient’s options for treatment pathway will be discussed at this time.

Frank Pope is one of the patients currently trialing the classes. “Meeting the staff and other patients has certainly benefited me. They have helped me so much so I would certainly recommend them for anyone who has any difficulties in walking. Thank you for the tremendous effort you all put in to help us all.”