Innovator in Care Award

This award celebrates individuals that have made innovative approaches to care. This could be developing a new concept, finding new ways to identify people who can benefit from hospice and palliative care, or approaching a challenging care issue.

When judging this award, particular value will be placed on innovations which have improved one or more of the following:

• Access to care.
• Treatment of troublesome symptoms.
• Resolution of psychosocial and spiritual distress.
• The opportunities for people to receive care in-line with cultural, religious, social or other preferences.
• The opportunities for people to receive care in the place of their choice.
• Bereavement outcomes.
• Engagement of users in the planning, organisation and evaluation of services.

If someone in your hospice has demonstrated measurable benefit to service users or an an innovation be applied to other hospice and palliative care organisations, nominate them for this award.

Read our submission criteria and general guidance:

How original was the innovation?

• Was it a new concept or a variation of an existing idea?
• Was it developed independently or in cooperation with others?
• Did the individual improve any of the areas listed in the above bullet points?

What was the impact of the innovation?

• Was there a measurable benefit to users?
• Could elements of the project be applied to other parts of the organisation or care processes?

Applicability

• Can this innovation be applied to other hospice and palliative care organisations?

The winners have been announced at our National Conference in Glasgow.

The nomination was accompanied by qualitative and qualitative data and the panel especially enjoyed the videos of the patient’s stories. The numerical data was overwhelming: this project has increased the hospice inpatient activity by 200% and hospice at home activity by 300%. The impact of this means that patients have been cared for outside of the acute environment, contributing to easing the pressures that those services have been facing. 

The panel felt this was a replicable model: patients with frailty are signposted and cared for at the front door. Jennifer’s work has shown good collaboration across the system with the patient at the centre.

Diabetes Mellitus is relatively common in adult palliative care, but is infrequently seen in paediatrics. This means when a patient and their family come to a paediatric hospice, clinical care staff can feel uncertain and unfamiliar with their needs. 

Using the new Managing Diabetes Mellitus in Paediatric Palliative Care guideline, with its clear management recommendations, children and young people may be able to avoid the unpleasant symptoms and side effects of the medications, and to be supported in considering care options with palliative care staff who feel confident in providing these.

The team would like to dedicate this award to the memory of Lucy Watson who inspired this work.

The Awards Panel agreed that this piece of work would be hugely valuable: “Christine and her team's work has undoubtedly made an invaluable contribution to hospice and end of life care for children and young people, the guidance will equip palliative care staff to feel confident in providing the best possible care. Their recommendations mean that children and young people with Diabetes Mellitus will be supported to live as well as possible by receiving evidenced based care. Well done Christine and team!”

This has not only given a learning opportunity to these new and often younger volunteers, it gives patients the opportunity to share their stories with the volunteers - offering a positive impact on the potential next generation of health care workers and giving them an insight into hospice care.

We feel this innovation not only has positively impacted the community, but can be shared and replicated widely with real impact.