Page 44 - QARANC Vol 14 No 13 2016

42 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Cavell Nurses’ Trust Awards Ceremony
18 May 2016 at Grand Connaught Rooms, London
In the five decades of her life, Edith Cavell moved from being a compliant daughter in paternalistic Victorian society to qualifying as a nurse at a time when it first became a profession. In her forties she introduced professional nursing to Brussels, worked in France in an unfamiliar culture, and became a resistance worker in order to defy wrongdoing and save lives in an unbelievably dangerous war.
After her execution she became a national hero in Britain, France and Belgium and two national newspapers in England raised funds in memory of Edith Cavell and raised enough for six rest homes for nurses around England by 1917. The Cavell family had suggested this as Edith had said when she retired, she hoped to provide this care. Although there is no longer a need for nursing homes and these have been sold, the Charity, founded in 1917 as Cavell Nurses’ Trust, still continues Edith’s legacy of caring and learning by providing for nurses who face hard times and by offering scholarships for students. The Charity’s logo is ‘A living legacy of caring and learning’ and provides welfare and financial support in times of desperate need and hardship and through learning by giving student nurses and midwives the opportunity to enhance their studies through scholarship awards.
It was with great pleasure that this year the QARANC had the opportunity to present two awards at the 5th Annual Edith Cavell Nurses Trust awards ceremony. The first was Outstanding QARANC Reservist Clinical Professional Development Award and the second Outstanding QARANC Reservist Student Award. These two awards were presented by Col Elizabeth Coles (TD).
There were two nominations for the Outstanding QARANC Reservist Student Award - Alex Collyer from University of Southampton and Kate Cranston, Teesside University and the winner of this category was Kate Cranston. The Edith Cavell awards were also a fantastic opportunity to recognise the achievements of our qualified nurses and this year there was a new category for Outstanding QARANC Reservist Clinical Professional Development Award. In total there were six nominees: Cpl Marie Hatfield (243, (Wessex) Field Hospital), Lt Col Joy McGrath (204 (North Irish) Field Hospital), Maj Neil Montgomery (204 (North Irish) Field Hospital), Cpl Katie Pritchard (306 Hospital Support, Medical Regiment), Lt Seamus Reid (204 (North Irish) Field Hospital) and Maj Gaby Smyth (204 (North Irish) Field Hospital).
204 Field Hospital were delighted to have four nominees. The four nominees included Lt Seamus Reid, a charge nurse from the Ulster Hospital in the South Eastern Trust who, reflecting on practice in his ward, identified a need to review the two unit blood transfusion practice that was occurring in the Trust. Supported by the quality improvement team, Lt Reid applied quality improvement methodologies to evaluate what interventions resulted in minimising this unnecessary patient risk. The interventions identified were simple measures; checking haemoglobin after the first unit of blood, the addition of an awareness sticker to the blood collection book and a poster. Over the nine month duration of
Lt Seamus Reid Winner of Outstanding QARANC Reservist Clinical Professional Development Award and Major Gaby Smyth Runner Up
the project, he demonstrated a sustained reduction in blood transfusion issues and a projected fifty thousand pound annual cost saving to the Trust. He made a three-fold reduction in over transfusions which not only reduced the clinical risk to patients but also had a positive impact on time available by thenursingteamtoprovidecareforotherpatients.LtReid was commended for his contribution to improvements in clinical practice, leadership and patient safety and no better way than by selection as the Winner of the Outstanding QARANC Reservist Clinical Professional Development Award.
The second nominee Lt Col Joy McGrath is the Officer Commanding Clinical Squadron 204 Field Hospital, Belfast. In her civilian capacity she is a Theatre Sister and Nurse Development Co-ordinator working within theatres on 3 hospital sites within Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. It was Lt Col McGrath’s military experience, particularly on deployment, coupled with her role in the Belfast Trust, that encouraged her to engage with the RCN to discuss a working partnership, which would mutually benefit the nursing cadre in 204 Field Hospital and the Health and Social Care Trusts within NI. This was supported by the RCN and encouraged enthusiastically by The Director of RCN, Janice Smyth. Since developing this working relationship, the RCN and 204 Field Hospital have worked together through placement activity, employer engagement, hospital teaching and social functions where both civilian nursing staff and reservists network and share ideas and practice. She has used silent opportunities to improve the profile of reserve nursing and by developing this slowly we have arrived at an era of mutual understanding and respect. Col McGrath continues to build upon the balance between civilian and reserves.
The third nominee from 204 Field Hospital was Maj Neil Montgomery, a Critical Care Outreach Nurse, working within the Belfast Trust. In 2015 he qualified as an instructor in Battlefield Advanced Trauma Life Support and recently has instructed