The Sheffield NHS teams up for top awards for work during the pandemic

Yorkshire pensioner Peter Thompson, 73, has thanked staff at a Sheffield hospital for treatment during coronavirus which he believes stopped him needing surgery.

“I was losing weight and increasingly fatigued from a long term health condition as Covid-19 started to take a grip on the country,” explains Peter, 73. “I was referred to one of the surgeons who felt that a major abdominal operation was a possible solution but due to my poor nutritional health with low protein, status of disease and uncertainty of surgical outcomes with Covid-19, another option was explored.”

As a result Peter was asked to attend the Theatre Assessment Unit as a day case patient to have intravenous feeding four times a week. The day case establishment of feeding in the vein was the first time it had been performed at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and was only possible due to the team’s endeavours. This resulted in a significant improvement of his symptoms.

He now receives intravenous feeding at home, has avoided major surgery and has a significant improvement in his quality of 
life.

“Being in the hospital at the height of the pandemic was daunting, but the care has been outstanding. Nothing has been too much trouble even to the extent that I was looked after in a ‘quiet’ ward. Thanks to the team my symptoms have improved since the first day of treatment. They are a credit to the NHS.”

Now nurses from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been shortlisted in the Nursing Times Workforce Awards in recognition of the responsive, high quality care they provided to patients during the pandemic.

The team is in contention for ‘Workforce Team of the Year’. As well as adapting services to offer care to those patients who were waiting for or recovering from surgery who might otherwise have been vulnerable to Covid-19, they provided care for patients from multiple specialties to ensure that they continued to be nursed in a safe and suitable environment.

Jo Marsden, Nurse Director for Surgical Services, said: “I am ecstatic and so very proud that the Surgical Services’ nursing teams have been nationally recognised for their work in response to Covid-19.”

One of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Nurse Directors, Jane Hopkins and the Medicine and Pharmacy Services teams have been named as finalists in the prestigious Nursing Times Workforce Awards.

Jane is one of six nurses across the country shortlisted for the Nurse Manager of the Year title while an innovative model of care established by her team, which incorporates the skills of physiotherapists and occupational therapists in a traditional ward setting 24/7, is one of 11 teams recognised in the Workforce Team of the Year category.

The Medicine and Pharmacy Services Care Group teams look after some of the hospital’s most vulnerable patients, including those with complex health conditions such as diabetes, respiratory illnesses and digestive disorders.

As Nurse Director, Jane, who cites her team as her “inspiration” has set high standards of care and has been instrumental in developing clinical leaders of the future through bespoke training and development programmes for nurses and clinical support workers.

Innovative team working has also been recognised by the judges and in particular a new way of working on wards which ensures patients transition through the various stages of care as seamlessly as possible. A number of new ways of working have contributed to significant reductions in patients’ length of stay and effective and timely discharge. Board rounds have been embedded as routine practice and means that the whole ward team meet at a set time each day to review each patient in terms of what is needed to ensure their care progresses without any unnecessary delays. Integrated ward working has been introduced which involves including dedicated therapists in a ward’s core team so that mobilisation can begin early and there can be shared learning between all members of the team.

Jane Hopkins, Nurse Director for the Medicine and Pharmacy Services Care Group at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I am hugely privileged to lead this team, who continually strive to innovate and provide compassionate, high quality nursing care to our patients. Being shortlisted for these two awards is a fantastic celebration of the whole’s team’s achievements. I am particularly proud of the team’s shared vision and the development of the integrated care ward model, which has benefited both nursing and therapy teams, and supports patients to be as active and independent as possible at the right time and point in their care.”

The winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 2.