Gateshead Health is delighted that our enabling effective learning environments (EELE) team won the Nursing in Primary Care award at the Nursing Times Awards last week for their work with the Newcastle GP service.
The awards bring together the nursing community to shine a light on the brightest talent in the profession and recognise those who make nursing innovative, patient-focused, and inclusive.
The team has been hosted by Gateshead Health since June 2020 and has developed a scheme to support student nurse training and improve care in GP surgeries.
Helen Stainsby, Practice Placement Facilitator, and Joanna Vintis, PPF, and Lead Nurse in primary care for Newcastle GP services developed the Nurses on Tour project which involved a series of student nurse-led health roadshows. This involved visiting 10 GP practices across Northumberland with a team of 40 nurses from all areas, the students delivered health checks to 738 patients. Helen said, “We are absolutely delighted and are very proud that the fantastic work that the EELE team and NGPS are doing together has been recognised.”
The aim of the project was to showcase the fantastic contribution that student nurses can make to primary care. One student said, “My perception of practice nursing has changed. It has highlighted the diverse roles that can benefit practice nursing – particularly the transferrable skills of learning disability nurses.”
The practices also found the benefit, one said “‘Patients who had not been to the surgery for a long time were able to have a health check. Hopefully, the student nurses will consider general practice in the future as a permanent placement.”
The project has been shared widely in forums, conferences, and meetings and the model is now being used across England. We are incredibly proud to see it moving into different parts of the country and enhancing student education and practice engagement.
Well done to the team for this top nursing accolade!