Sustainability and Innovation Projects in Partnership

Sustainability is vitally important and nowhere more so than in healthcare.

Nurses are innovators and have excellent ideas on how to improve patient care and work sustainably to protect the environment. The NHS alone accounts for 5% of the UK’s carbon footprint and the health sector has the capacity to make a big difference in reducing carbon emissions.

Does your organisation want to make a difference? Do you have an idea which you think could reduce the carbon footprint of your service, reduce waste, improve the environment or make your service or interventions more sustainable?

The QNI can help

If the answer is yes, we can help. The QNI provides a structured year-long programme to help develop and refine your objectives, measured with proven outcomes and evaluation methods.

Please note, organisations need to make a financial commitment to join the programme.

The learning and development gained in the supportive environment of a QNI innovation programme enables nurses to realise their potential and take their career to the next level. Successful projects also bring an enhanced profile and recognition to the services they work for, and improvements in care for individuals, families, and communities. Project leaders say the personal and professional benefits of undertaking a QNI innovation project are huge.

Another measure of success is that 67 per cent of projects going through the QNI’s innovation programme continue in one form or another after completion. Undertaking a QNI innovation project is an excellent and efficient way to use your CPD funding to deliver real results for nurses and services. Any organisation can run a project with us. We have space for around 10 projects to be delivered concurrently starting this year (the programme is dependent on a minimum number of applications being received).

All successful project leaders are invited to a QNI Awards Ceremony to receive a certificate of completion. In 2023, one of our projects also won the Nursing Times Award for Nursing in Social Care, with others being shortlisted for Burdett and Nursing Times awards.

Programme workshop dates:

• 20-21 June 2024
• 23-24 July 2024
• 9-10 September 2024

Find out more

Any organisation that wishes to find out more about commissioning a project with the QNI, or any community nurse who would like to discuss their project ideas, are encouraged to contact us at the earliest opportunity before 24th May 2024. For an initial discussion, please contact Dr Amanda Young, Director of Nursing Programmes (Innovation and Policy): amanda.young@qni.org.uk.

Download our Community Nursing Projects Introduction booklet 2023. Have a look at some case studies from previous projects or watch this short film by Gerard Wainwright, who went on to become RCN Learning Disability Nurse of the Year 2022.

More information about a greener NHS can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/