Thank You Event 2024: Kate Granger Patient Care Award - Highly Commended
Every year we celebrate our amazing staff and their achievements at our Thank You ceremony. Board members will surprise colleagues at their bases and present them with a hamper, balloons and a certificate for being shining examples of our magnificent staff behaviours.
Kate Granger Patient Care Award - Highly Commended
Suzanne Miller, Cardiac Nurse Specialist and Jayne McGuiness, Cardiac Therapy Assistant
A 30-year-old patient with multiple long term conditions was discharged from hospital to the care of the Community Cardiac Service with a new diagnosis of heart failure.
On initial assessment by Suzie Miller, Cardiac Nurse Specialist, he was grossly oedematous (retention of fluid due to heart failure), with pitting oedema throughout his body and fist sized pockets of fluid around the groin. His abdomen and legs were blistered and weeping. He was unable to work and mostly bed bound, requiring carers to wash once daily. His body weight was 271kg (around 70 kg higher than his normal weight). He was desperate not to go back to hospital, very self-conscious and struggling to cope.
Suzie quickly established he needed intense diuretic treatment to offload excess fluid and relieve his symptoms. She liaised with the Consultant Cardiologist and started a course of intravenous diuretic therapy at home, which was delivered daily by the LCH CIVAS team and monitored by the Community Cardiac Nurses. The patient quickly lost 43kg of fluid and was reverted to oral diuretic medication.
Suzie continued to see the patient in order to optimise his cardiac medication, which resulted in a further 34kg of fluid loss, and a significant improvement to his heart muscle function, and improvement to his breathlessness. Alongside the Cardiac Nurse input, he was also seen regularly by the Therapy Assistant, Jayne McGuiness, who supported him with regular walks outside (while visiting to do blood tests), increasing his confidence, and encouragement to get out more.
Throughout his treatment, the patient was very demotivated, low in mood, and was under a lot of scrutiny from his employer. Through the support of Suzie and Jayne, over a number of months, he returned to work, had his first haircut since before lock down, had his first holiday in many years to a log cabin with family, started going out for meals for the first time in 5 years, his weight loss meant he could travel in family cars, and he had an overall increased sense of self-worth and confidence.
Caroline Stocks, Clinical Head of Service, Specialist Business Unit nominated Suzie and Jayne and added, “I believe they have both demonstrated true person-centred care, identifying what matters most to the patient, and supporting him to achieve this. Their intervention totally transformed this patient's life, and he's now able to self-manage his condition with confidence. It is great their hard work and dedication can be recognised with this award.”
Steph Lawrence, Executive Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals presented the award to Suzie* and said, "The nomination made me emotional! All the work you have done with the patient, you went above and beyond to make sure he could do all the things he needed to do and helped to drastically improve his health and wellbeing. It's for this tremendous care that you both have provided that it's an honour to present this to you and Jayne.
*Unfortunately, Jayne was unable to be there but the team will be sure to pass on her certificate to her.
