Two attendees of our “Practical course for innovation adoption in healthcare settings” course, held in partnership with Buckinghamshire New University, have won awards for innovations they have developed in their day-to-day roles.
Samantha Unamboowe, Library Manager at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, recently developed an Innovations Database for the Trust, which has now won the Sally Hernando Award for Innovation in NHS Library and Knowledge Services, a prestigious national award for library services. The database holds the results of projects and research undertaken by Trust staff, so that this information can be shared with colleagues more easily. Since winning the award, she has also been approached by other Trusts who are interested in replicating the database.
Samantha said: “I work with a lot of clinicians when they are doing their research and see some fantastic, innovative work. I thought wouldn’t it be nice to make this permanently accessible?”
She also credited attending the ICHP/ Buckinghamshire New University innovation course with supporting the development of her innovation: “As a result of attending PP731: Introduction to Clinical Innovation in Healthcare Practice, I was introduced to the concepts of frugal innovation and reverse innovation. This made me realise that it is possible to deploy existing resources in new ways to bring about innovation. The second module PP734 – Delivering and Sustaining Improvement in Healthcare Settings – introduced me to using tools such as the Action Effect Diagram, Stakeholder Map, RASCI chart and the Pathways to Outcome as well as program theory, which are helpful in documenting what needs to be achieved and documenting of all the relevant components that need to be taken into account for the successful achievement of the project. I found I gained confidence in using these tools through hands-on experience under the guidance of the course lecturers and the constructive feedback I received from them.”
A second attendee of the course, Melissa Rochon, quality and safety lead for surveillance at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, is also part of a team who won a gold award at the OneTogether awards in Birmingham in November for their Photo at Discharge scheme. The scheme involves giving a patient a pack on discharge containing a colour photograph of their surgical wounds along with aftercare advice. As a result of the scheme, re-admissions for surgical site infection (SSI) have been reduced, releasing up to 336 bed days per year.
Melissa said: “The use of photography to enhance wound surveillance has been a great asset, and something all nursing staff can do.”
Samantha and Melissa both completed a Post-graduate Certificate Professional Practice (Healthcare) qualification at Buckinghamshire New University, and their studies included modules in Introduction to Clinical Innovation in Healthcare Practice and Delivering and Sustaining Improvement in Healthcare Settings.
