Nurse-led projects supporting people with Complex Needs in the community begin

Thanks to funding from The Burdett Trust for Nursing, in 2021 the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) will be able to support ten nurse-led innovation projects that aim to improve care for people with complex needs.

The ten chosen projects focus on improving health for people with complex needs in primary care/community settings. Applicants were asked to demonstrate that their project could lead to reduced hospital admissions for people living with complex needs, where those needs could instead be successfully managed in the community.

Each project leader will benefit from a bespoke year-long programme of professional support and funding from the QNI. Due to limitations imposed by the pandemic, the programme workshops will be held online, with the first workshops taking place in the second week of January 2021.

The successful projects are:

• BEAT Diabetes at HMS Prison Oakwood, Wolverhampton
• Digital diabetes lifestyle modification, Community project, Walthamstow, East London
• Promoting oral health in care homes, Leicester
• Flex, Connect and Share, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
• Recognition of good respiratory health, Wakefield Community Learning Disability Team, West Yorkshire
• ‘Well-come Home’, a care home project within Bradford Community Services, West Yorkshire
• Reducing inconsistencies in respiratory care, Primary Care Respiratory Team, Pontypool, South Wales
• A single point of contact, District Nursing team, Harlech, Gwynedd, North Wales
• Hospital admission avoidance, Care home project within Kent Community Frailty Team
• Digitalising Clinical Care, Wren Hall Nursing Home, Nottingham.

Sue Boran, the QNI’s Director of Nursing Programmes, who oversees delivery of the QNI’s Fund for Innovation programme said, ‘I am delighted that we will be able to work with ten nursing teams in such diverse community specialisms across England and Wales next year. These nurses are facing growing challenges in the delivery of care for people with ever-more complex needs in community and primary care settings, and through shared learning and encouraging innovative approaches we will be able to achieve significant outcomes for healthcare in the future.’

Shirley Baines, Chief Executive of the Burdett Trust commented, ‘The Burdett Trust for Nursing is delighted to be able to support ten new QNI projects in complex care in the community. The QNI has great experience in supporting nurses to achieve measurable outcomes in these projects, leading to long term benefits for community healthcare.’

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Since 1990 The Queen’s Nursing Institute has supported over 250 nurse-led projects in the community, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The projects have led to improvements in care for people, families and communities and many have been adopted as mainstream services by NHS Trusts and other provider organisations.

The Burdett Trust for Nursing is an independent charitable trust that makes grants to support nurse-led projects focused on supporting the nursing contribution to healthcare. The Trust aims to use its funds to empower nurses and make significant improvements to the patient care environment.

The number of people living with complex, multiple health conditions is increasing. It is estimated that three million people in the UK have three or more long-term conditions, whether physical or mental/psychological/cognitive. People living in more socially deprived areas are at greater risk of developing such conditions.

For more than a decade, health care policy has tried to reduce the demand for emergency hospital care by improving capability and capacity in other parts of the health care system. Working as part of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams, nurses can provide coordinated, person-centred and preventive care that reduces unnecessary hospital admissions and enables patients with complex needs to remain at or return home with reduced reliance on hospital services.

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