I was nominated by one of our rheumatology consultants, who quickly picked up on my ethos and passion for the digital projects I’m developing to improve patient outcomes. The pathway will be benchmarked against NICE guidance through a national HQIP audit. We also created a business case to expand the medical, nursing and administrative staff within the department. The whole pathway has been restructured, with a new process to identify and book patients into timely appointments and to ensure that patients are seen by the most appropriate member of the team (either nursing or medical) at the correct time interval.Īs a result of the pandemic, this now includes virtual and in-person appointments with the nursing team. Tell us about the work you did to win this award?ĭiane: I've recently been involved in the service improvement journey for patients referred with new or suspected early inflammatory arthritis, in particular the contribution that nurses can make towards best practice in this area. Here we talked to them both about their awards. For the first time, the British Journal of Nursing Awards celebrated rheumatology nurses with a new category. This year’s overall winner was Diane Home, consultant rheumatology nurse at Chelsea and Westminster Hospitals NHS Trust the silver award winner was clinical nurse specialist Robert Clark from Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.
