The QNI has announced the latest projects to receive funds from their annual Fund for Innovation and Leadership for 2015.
A group of 11 practice, district, community and specialist nurses have been picked to receive a maximum of £5000 to develop their projects over the next year.
This year's projects are:
- Fiona Brockwell, a district nurse from Wendover, Buckinghamshire will implement a specialist service for patients over 75 to develop care plans to reduce emergency hospital admissions.
- Laura Garner, a harm reduction nurse specialist from Nottingham, will set up open access clinics for vulnerable patients to provide them with information about smoking cessation.
- Lynne Bromley, a general practice nurse from Bolton, will engage with BME groups that do not regularly access healthcare to better self-manage diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
- Sue Batchelor, a respiratory specialist nurse from Southampton, will invite patients with COPD to attend singing sessions for eight weeks, with assessments completed before and after the sessions. Singing has been proven to improve breathing control and develops awareness of postural and breathing patterns.
- Claire O'Connor, a paediatric diabetes specialist nurse from Ashton Under Lyne, will develop a structured education programme to support children and young people with type 1 diabetes and their families.
- Carol Gray, strategic lead for palliative and end-of-life care in Paignton, Devon, will pilot a project that aims to improve standards of end-of-life care for residents in care homes. Care staff will receive a course that will cover the five priorities for care: recognise, communicate, involve, support and plan.
- Marysia Graffin, community staff nurse in Northern Ireland, will develop a pre-packed sterile dressing pack for patients with catheters (HICC and PICC lines). District nurses often encounter diffculties in changing these dressings so the dressing pack aims to improve care and reduce risk of infection.
- Matthew Joel, a community learning disability nurse from Bristol, aims to improve access to bowel screening for people with learning disabilities.
- Aisleen Cunningham, a stroke patient experience facilitator from Northern Ireland, has set up a project to improve discharge information and support provided to patients following discharge from hospital after a stroke.
- Hilary Clarke, heart failure nurse from Northern Ireland, will offer supervised group exercise-based rehabilitation for selected patients with heart failure.
- Nicky O Shea, palliative specialist nurse from East Kent, aims to promote early intervention and assessment of pressure ulcer risk and skin failure for community palliative care patients.
Anne Pearson, director of programmes at the QNI, said: 'We are delighted to be working with this new group of project leaders to deliver some exciting and innovative clinical projects in the commmunity. These projects will help to improve patient care, and will also contribute to nursing practice more widely, and the development of new clinical leaders.'
The projects were selected by a range of QNI fellows and Queen's Nurses. Project leaders are expected to submit reports over the year on the projects' progress and each project will receive a site visit from a practice development manager. The QNI will also hold workshops for the recipients to guide them in developing their projects.
The QNI has been funding nurse-led initiatives at a local level since 1990.