Congratulations to BWC Patient Safety Team for Nursing Times Award win  | News

Congratulations to BWC Patient Safety Team for Nursing Times Award win 

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The Patient Safety team, as well as Pharmacy and Clinical Nurse Specialists, from Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (BWC), have won the Patient Safety Improvement prize at this year's Nursing Times Awards.  

The team were named the winner on Wednesday 23 October for the team’s project to reduce the harm caused to patients by extravasation injuries, which can occur when a patient is receiving drugs or fluids intravenously and can cause severe harm.   

It prioritised engagement with frontline staff, who were key to the innovation of a system that is believed to be the UK's first extravasation red, amber, green ( RAG ) rating, which also includes guidelines for staff on the administration and monitoring of intravenous medicines, dependent on the RAG rated risk.  

The system incorporated human factors to make it easier for colleagues to identify what level of risk medications were, which then enabled them to follow standardised guidelines for the administration and monitoring of the medications safely.     

Muriam Ahmed, Junior Sister, Patient Safety Team said: “It is really exciting. I cannot believe we have won. You should have seen my reaction on the night. It is a positive reinforcement of what we do and why we do it.  

“A huge thank you to all our staff involved, not just the project group but all our frontline nurses and doctors involved as well.”  

Amber Moreton, Clinical Safety Educator said: " We are so pleased with the results we have seen in a reduction of harm to patients and the national recognition of the project and are over the moon to be recognised for the commitment and hard work we have done  

We have seen a reduction in peripheral extravasation incidents following the launch of the project, whereby between January 2020 and April 2023, incident rates were a third lower, with moderate harm incidents almost halved and no new serious incidents.  

Karl Emms, Lead Nurse for Patient Safety said: " This is a huge accolade for the Trust and a big win for the project team. This project has resulted in reduced harm to our patients and is a testament not only to the project team but  also our frontline teams who contributed ideas and now implement it every day at the bedside.  

R hian Isaac, from our Pharmacy team, said:  "As a pharmacist, I've always considered extravasation harm a part of medication safety that we can minimise, and part of the process is helping provide the tools to give the medicine in the safest manner.   

“This is what the IV extravasation RAG rating is based on. It wouldn't however work without the wider nursing team championing it at the bedside and opening the conversations with the clinical team on options to give the medicine via the safest route or increase monitoring. So, thank you all for making it work and improving the safety of our patients.  

“It was an honour to be part of the Extravasation Working Team, with winning and being present at the Nursing Times Awards - the scale of the celebration evening will be a highlight in my career." 

This approach has been included in national NIVAS guidelines with four NHS Trusts considering adopting it into their systems.  

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