Hull nurses shortlisted for UK staff support award
RECOGNITION: From left, Julie Dimaline, Practice Placement Facilitator; Karen Mechen, Practice Development Matron; and Michio Schuck, Practice Development Nurse
By Simon Bristow
A team of nurses delivering an innovative programme to improve nurse numbers and patient care is in the running for one of the profession’s top accolades.
The nursing workforce and education team at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has been selected from 920 entries to be finalists in the Workforce Initiative category of the RCN Nursing Awards 2023. The award is sponsored by NHS Professionals.
The team will find out if it has won at a ceremony on Friday, November 10 at Liverpool Cathedral. The overall RCN Nurse of the Year 2023, selected from all the category winners, will also be announced at the event.
Staff survey results and feedback sessions showed nurses did not feel valued, supported or empowered to improve their service or give care to the standard they aspired to. Nurse vacancies were high.
However, the nursing workforce and education team has hugely reduced them. Its innovative Grow our Own programme supports the trust’s existing and future workforce to ensure it is able to give great care.
The team focuses on demonstrating that it values staff by supporting their development and career progression, looking after their health and well-being, and providing pastoral care.
Nursing support workers and internationally educated nurses have been supported to become registered nurses.
Practice development matron Karen Mechen said: “The project was initially created to boost our workforce and reduce our vacancies to as near to zero as possible, which would improve patient care and safety as a consequence.
“By investing in our current workforce, we have developed an environment in which staff feel valued and motivated.”
She added: “These awards are very important to put Hull, which is a very diverse community both inside and outside the trust, on the map as one of the shining stars. This will also support our work to show that everyone in our community is capable of a career in nursing with the right support, guidance and encouragement. Nobody should be excluded.”
Pat Cullen, RCN general secretary and chief executive, said: “Our inspiring finalists demonstrate the very best of nursing and what can be achieved in some of the challenging times for the profession.
“They highlight the wide variety of ways nurses improve the care of people at all stages of life and how they demonstrate their professionalism and clinical excellence every day, and in every setting, throughout the UK.”
The Foundation of Nursing Studies is the award’s charity partner this year. Its chief executive and current chair of the judging panel, Joanne Bosanquet MBE, said: “The quality of entries this year was superb and it was near impossible to choose our finalists from the creative and innovative work submitted.
“The shortlist showcases excellence and recognises the enormous difference that nurses make to people’s lives throughout the UK.”
The RCN Nursing Awards will this year be held alongside the inaugural Nursing Live, a new and dynamic event for everyone who works in nursing. Hosted over two days (November 10 - 11) at the ACC complex in Liverpool, the event will focus on both the professional and personal development of nurses at every stage of their careers and will be the first event of its kind for the sector.