15/11/2017
Two Fife nurses have been highly commended at a recent event for their work in improving the care of patients with dementia.
Gillian Grubb and Kerry Lowe, who are both senior charge nurses at Stratheden Hospital near Cupar, picked up two awards at the recent Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland event, held at the University of Abertay Dundee.
The first of their two awards was in recognition of an assessment tool they developed, which has since been rolled out across Fife. The Holistic Older Adults Assessment Tool (HOAAT) uses a series of strengths based questions to evaluate patients’ abilities and create highly personalised care plans. These plans are designed in close partnership with the patient, or their relatives or carers - this empowers those who know the patient best to contribute to the patients care and ultimately improves the care they receive.
Gillian and Kerry also received a second award for their innovative work to create a bespoke training programme for nursing staff in the care of patients with dementia. Having looked to source appropriate training for a group of newly appointed staff, Gillian and Kerry found that there was no suitable provision available within NHS Fife’s mental health services. In response, they worked collectively to develop their own two-day interactive training programme to fulfil this training need and incorporated materials from NHS Education for Scotland. This has ensured that staff caring for this patient group have the requisite skills to provide the best possible care.
Commenting on their awards, Associate Director of Nursing for the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, Nicky Connor said:
“Over a number of years Gillian and Kerry have gone above and beyond to consistently enhance the care of people with dementia in Fife.
“As a result of the changes that these two nurses have set in motion, the care of some of our most vulnerable patients have been significantly improved, and indeed continues to improve.
“I can think of no more deserving recipients of these awards than Kerry and Gillian and I would like to offer my congratulations to them on their achievements.”
Photo Caption:
L to R: Gillian Grubb (Senior Charge Nurse – Elmview Ward), Ken Quinn (Head of Nursing – Fifewide Division) and Kerry Lowe (Senior Charge Nurse – Bayview Ward).