Nuffield Trust Award 2008

2008 Award Winners

The winners of the Nuffield Trust Joint International Study Award in 2008 were Mary Dawood & Iain Taylor and Caroline Lawson & Alan Bartle. 

Caroline Lawson, Consultant Nurse - Stroke
Alan Bartle
Winning the Nuffield Award for 2008 provided a fantastic opportunity to visit a country that has worldwide recognition of providing an excellent acute stroke service, but at a fraction of the cost that we spend in England.  We had two areas that we wanted to concentrate on – the hyper acute phase – how did they manage to give a clot-busting drug (thrombolysis) to 15% of patients when in the UK we achieve this for only 0.8%? The second area was to review the voluntary sector for stroke and bring back new ideas for the regional stroke association.

The visit enabled us to provide a report for the South West region with examples of good practice that we felt could be replicated. These examples were categorised according to cost and potential benefit so provided some “quick wins” and visions for long-term investment.

Mary Dawood, Nurse Consultant in Emergency Medicine

Iain Taylor, Integrated Care Manager at Imperial College NHS Trust

Mary Dawood who is a Nurse Consultant in Emergency Medicine and  Iain Taylor an Integrated Care Manager at Imperial College NHS Trust travelled to the USA to explore the benefits of a dedicated paediatric trauma system.  The UK has lagged behind the USA in as much as there are still no dedicated paediatric trauma centres and paediatric trauma and injury prevention have a lower profile and have commanded less recognition in terms of dedicated facilities.  As a result trauma care for children is still arbitrary and largely dependent on local provision.  They were welcomed at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, Boston and Denver all dedicated paediatric trauma centres.  The opportunity to experience the benefits of a dedicated paediatric trauma system was timely in they were able to contribute constructively to the recent bid from Imperial College Healthcare Trust to be one of a number of major trauma centres for London.  They learnt that the trauma centre’s successful outcomes depend on its ability to execute a multidisciplinary team approach to the care of injured children right from the outset. Their first hand experience of expert evaluation, treatment, and care of children who have experienced severe and life-threatening trauma endorsed their belief in the benefits for children of such an integrated system. They also witnessed a totally electronic patient record system working to its full potential following numerous trials and adaptations.  This reassured them that future plans of NPfIT can benefit both patients and clinicians.  They have submitted a full account of their trip to the Nursing Standard.

Reports can be found below