Nurse-led Projects Improve Care for People with Complex Needs
18 November 2022
The Queen’s Nursing Institute has published the final reports of ten nurse-led projects that improved care for people with complex needs in the community.
The ten projects took place over 12 months starting in 2021 and were based in community provider organisations, primary care, care homes, and a prison, located in England and Wales. The projects were supported as part of the QNI’s Community Nursing Innovation Programme (CNIP), its flagship innovation and quality improvement programme for nurses in any community setting.
In the QNI’s report, each project describes its process, challenges and outcomes and gives a case study of how the project improved the health of an anonymised individual within the target beneficiary group. People who benefited from the projects included frail older adults, people with learning disabilities, and people living with diabetes and other long term conditions.
It has been an absolute pleasure to support these projects over the past year. They started in the middle of a pandemic and all workshops and support meetings were held online. It is to the credit of all the project leads and co-leads that they have succeeded with such extraordinary improvements to the health and wellbeing of people with complex needs in diverse community settings such as Care Homes, General Practice, prison and at home.
Sue Boran, Director of Nursing Programmes (Innovation)QNI staff members gave regular individual and group support to the projects online, but also undertook visits to all the projects during the year to see them being delivered. Project outcomes are developed with the QNI in the planning stage, and the projects also work with the QNI’s communications team to develop key messages and marketing materials. The project leaders will receive certificates acknowledging their work at the QNI’s Awards Ceremony taking place in London later this month.
All the projects demonstrated care that was highly personalised and this approach contributed to their effectiveness. Promoting self-care and education for patients and for staff were also key themes that we observed in all the projects. Reducing unplanned hospital admissions was an objective for all the projects and this underlies the contribution that community nurses make to cost saving as well as to excellent patient care.
Dr Amanda Young, Nursing Programmes Manager (Innovation)The QNI is currently accepting applications for new nurse-led innovation projects to start in 2023. The projects offer an opportunity to develop a quality improvement project within a supportive learning environment. Organisations and individuals wishing to find out more should contact Dr Amanda Young at amanda.young@qni.org.uk .
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
The innovation projects were funded thanks to a major grant from the Burdett Trust for Nursing.
Financial information about the QNI’s innovation programme is included in our Annual Reports and Accounts.
For photographs, contact information and other enquiries about the projects, please contact Matthew Bradby, Head of Communications: matthew.bradby@qni.org.uk
The titles of the individual Complex Care projects are:
- BEAT Diabetes
- Promoting Oral Health in Care Homes
- Digitalising Clinical Care
- Recognition of Good Respiratory Health
- Reducing Inconsistencies in Respiratory Care
- Hospital Admissions Avoidance
- Well Come Home
- Single Point Of Contact
- Flex, Connect and Share
- Digital Diabetes Lifestyle Modification Programme
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