Celebrating the role of nurses in keeping the world healthy
As we celebrate World Health Day 2020 and the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, we are grateful for the role Vygon can play in supporting both individuals and teams.
For many years nurses have been at the centre of our learning and development programme which is made up of events, such as our ever popular gastrostomy study days, in-house training sessions and education materials.
Nurses often lead the initiatives to change practice, introduce new equipment or techniques. Their knowledge of their specialty, department and team is invaluable and by focusing our learning efforts with them we know it can make the biggest impact.
The value and crucial role of nurses is also what’s behind our recruitment of our own Clinical Nurse Specialists. With a background in nursing and specialist expertise of the highest level, they ensure our training and education is most effective and delivered in a way that is both convenient and efficient.
Sometimes this means working alongside a nursing team to understand particular local processes and procedures and delivering the learning on site. At other times it’s taking nurses out of their working environment for a short while so they can focus purely on their learning. We do whatever needs to be done.
An important focus has been on upskilling vascular access teams and our Clinical Nurse Specialists say that one of the most satisfying achievements is getting clinicians to the point where they feel competent and able to perform a procedure without supervision.
Our work with nurses is also helping teams improve patient outcomes with new product development. An example is the creation of Bionector TKO SAS with Vascular Access Nurse Specialist Vicki Shawyer at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.
Vicki led an initiative for a self-administration IV solution in conjunction with the Respiratory team’s Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) service. We worked with Vicki to design an extension line with a needle connector attached that was just the right length.
Patients gave the Bionector TKO SAS an overwhelming endorsement as it gave them the opportunity to get on with normal life during treatment.
Plus there were financial benefits for the hospital as the new treatment regime saves clinician time to administer the therapies as well as the cost of a hospital bed.
So on this World Health Day to celebrate the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, we are delighted that the spotlight is being shone on the profession. They deserve nothing less and we are delighted to be able to play our part in supporting nurses now, as well as in the years to come.