Team and Employee of the Month – October 2018

Bradford Teaching Hospitals has a reputation for leading the way in clinical care, and the latest recipients of our Trust-wide Team of the Month Award are no exception.

Congratulations to our pioneering ACE service!

The scheme, the first of its kind in the UK, brings care to young patients in their own homes, prevents unnecessary admissions, and integrates hospital & community paediatric services.

Team members grabbed the attention of Kay Rushforth, our Head of Nursing (Children’s Services), who nominated them for their dedication and hard work.

She said: “The ACE service provides nursing assessment, care and support to children and young people who are acutely unwell in their own homes according to bespoke clinical pathways.

“The pathways have been developed with GPs, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and paediatricians, and are based on best available evidence, national guidance and local agreement.

“ACE has been developed through innovative collaboration with clinical commissioning groups too, and care is undertaken under the remote supervision of consultant paediatricians.

“In addition to acute management, the team deliver care bundles. For example, for children and young people with asthma or wheeze this includes support with inhaler delivery, monitoring the effectiveness of treatment, smoking cessation advice and help managing future episodes.

“Between December 2017 and October 2018 alone, the service took 241 referrals and saved a fantastic 257 bed days with no adverse events. The ACE service has also prompted better integration of acute and community paediatric services, and reduced avoidable A&E attendances and non-elective admissions too.

“The team won the prestigious Health Service Journal Award in the Emergency and Urgent Care category at this year’s HSJ Awards in London, and are rightly proud of having done so. Congratulations to everyone in the team on all the success they have achieved this year!”

Dietetic Assistant Practitioner Jo Dunn strives to put our patients at the heart of everything she does. And that’s why we were delighted to present her with the October Employee of the Month award.

Her care and compassion stood out for Rebecca Little, Team Leader, Adult Inpatient Dietitians, who nominated her.

She said: “Jo has been working in our team for just over a year. She has made a huge difference to the patients we support. This was a new post and Jo has developed it into a fantastic service.

“She really cares about her patients and spends as much time as is needed ensuring nutritional care plans are patient centred. She spent time speaking to a patient (and their family) who was struggling with their nutrition, and identified the problem was actually their swallowing.

Reducing the potential for harm

“She then sought advice from the speech therapists who were so impressed with her assessment that they took the time out to email to tell me that Jo had identified the swallowing difficulties which hadn’t been spotted by anyone else, reducing the potential for harm.

“They also said that Jo had a lovely manner and was always friendly, helpful and efficient.

“Jo also works closely with the ward hospitality assistants to help them understand the importance of patients receiving their prescribed snacks; ensuring they receive the nutritional treatment they need – and also preventing waste.

Jo is a hardworking, caring and compassionate person and is a real asset to our team.”

Congratulations to Jo on her well deserved award!