Nurses from Brighton and Hove have won a national award for producing a guide for carers looking after older people.
The guide – a booklet entitled Stop Look Care – was put together by nurses working for the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
It was designed to support care workers and carers who look after older people and with the aim of reducing unnecessary admissions to hospital.
The nurses worked on the booklet with professionals and organisations from around Brighton and Hove.
The CCG said: “Stop Look Care is an increased awareness model developed to help reduce unplanned hospital admissions of older people.
“The original idea was to provide training to carers working in residential nursing and care homes as well as those working in the home-care sector within Brighton and Hove.
“After challenges with finance and governance stopped the project progressing, the team designed the Stop Look Care book to replace training.”
And their efforts were rewarded with the Care of Older People Award from Nursing Times at a ceremony in London last week.
The CCG said: “This easy-to-read handbook explains why different aspects of observation and care are important, what to monitor and what action to take.
“In an evaluation, all respondents felt more confident in addressing all the topics covered.
“It was designed for care workers and carers as they are in the ideal position to recognise changes in an individual’s condition by monitoring them and or recognising any deterioration in a person’s wellbeing.”
Delighted to say that our amazing #StopLookCare team was recognised for their innovative work last night at the at the Nursing Times annual awards ceremony, where they won the ‘Care of Older People’ award. https://t.co/rMoyqzRpKb pic.twitter.com/KDLMt9PSjG
— NHSBrightonHove (@NHSBrightonHove) November 1, 2018
Sussex and East Surrey Clinical Commissioning Groups chief nurse and director of quality Allison Cannon said: “We are really proud to have the hard work of our nurses recognised by winning this award.
“But more importantly, it shows the Stop Look Care booklet has a real impact on improving the lives of older people in our community.
“We are committed to supporting older people and creating innovative ways to make sure they get the care and support they deserve such as this award-winning booklet.”
Nursing Times said that the Care of Older People Award was designed to highlight the excellent care given to older people, which is often ignored.
The award is open to individual nurses or teams working for the NHS or independent sector who have developed initiatives specifically to ensure older people receive the best possible care or retain their health and independence.
These include schemes to enable older people to live independently at home for as long as possible, to improve the experience of older people in residential and care homes and improve the care offered to older people in the hospital setting.
