So what's it like, and what does it mean, to be a finalist at the Nursing Times Awards 2018?

Early in 2018 I thought it would be good to showcase the research work we do and so I decided to nominate our research team at the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust for the Nursing Times 2018 Awards. Little did I know the journey this would take us on and what it would give us to improve what we do and to help others.

We didn't win but we were a finalist. Don't get me wrong it would be nice to have won but research in the NHS, which seeks to enhance patient outcome and experience, is not about individuals beating others. It is about us, working as a community, to deliver the evidence base to improve future ways of treating patients.

NHS patients were the real winners of the Nursing Times Awards and you can see some video of what it is like for patients to be a research participant here.

If you want to look at the winners and photos from the 2018 Nursing Times Awards then you can click here. Huge congratulations to Solent Trust and all the other finalists.

If you want to read our story then please continue... But if you want to know what it's like - it's absolutely fantastic! And what does it mean - well it means more than you might at first think.

What did we learn from this?

1. There is so much great stuff going on out there and it makes sense to learn from each other - the National Institute for Health Research made a special effort to bring all the finalists in the clinical research nursing category together. Hopefully this will make it easier for us to share good practice and learn from each other.
2. When we work in our own area we often tend to focus on how we want to improve things, how things could be better and the challenges that we need to overcome. Our drive for continual improvement can sometimes be at the expenses of actually recognising what we have achieved. The review of our progress over the last two years and writing the nomination forced us to look back over and acknowledge all that we have done.
3. Having highly respected external colleagues say that we have done a good job has been such powerful motivating factor. As human beings it is really great for us to hear somebody else say we've done a great job!
4. Research can only take place with the involvement of a very large number of people and, of course, through those that wish to take part. We are very grateful for all the individual efforts that make this possible.

So what was our nomination?

The following slides provide an overview of our nomination which can be summarised as:

1. We developed a research strategy to enhance patient outcome and experience through research and innovation.
2. A key element of this was to ensure that research nurses could work together as a team, and as part of a multi-specialty group.
3. We have developed a pathway so that staff can progress and reach their research potential.

The research strategy has had a dramatic and sustained effect on research activity - which has dramatically increased, become more widespread across different healthcare areas and the number of studies offered has increased. All this enhances patient outcome and experience through research and innovation.

If you would like to find out more about research at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust then please visit our website.