Published on: 23 April 2018
We are delighted to announce that one of our nursing team has been announced as a finalist in the 2018 RCNi Nurse Awards, the UK’s most prestigious nursing accolades.
Following the awards’ highest ever number of nominations in their 31 year history, a panel of expert judges has whittled down over 700 entries to just five inspirational finalists for each award category, and Sharon is a finalist in the ‘Learning Disability Nursing’ category. The RCNi Nurse Awards identify and celebrate nurses who, every day, go above and beyond to save lives, provide outstanding care for patients and transform nursing practice for the better.
Sharon Stodhard, who works as sister in our Chest Clinic has been shortlisted for her work in transforming the management of respiratory diseases for patients with learning disabilities. Prior to Sharon’s programme, this group of patients frequently made unnecessary visits to A&E and required out of hours GP services, impacting NHS resources. In addition to developing easy read literature, Sharon developed a micro-site for these patients to visit in the first instance, including a video of an inhaler technique demonstration. Within 6 months of the project launch, there was a 25% reduction in learning disability patients accessing A&E, ambulance and out of hours services, saving the NHS a total of £1,986.
The hunt for Britain’s nursing heroes started back in December 2017, led by Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway, and will culminate in a glamorous awards ceremony on 4th July in central London. Nurses were able to nominate themselves or their colleagues across 14 different categories ranging from Mental Health and Cancer, to Emergency and Student Nursing.
Sharon will now go through to the interview stage of the judging process, ahead of the awards ceremony in July and we wish her the very best of luck.
