Staff at a South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire NHS trust face a nail-biting few months’ wait before finding out if they are amongst the award winners in a top annual healthcare competition.
Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) has been shortlisted for an online parents’ information app and a research project in the prestigious Nursing Times Awards 2022:
- Parent+ eClinics app
Developed during Covid-19 lockdown, the free eClinics app enables parents and carers of children and young people aged up to 19 to discuss confidential growing up worries with a healthcare professional via a chat service on their smartphone or laptop.
It has been shortlisted in the Technology and Data in Nursing category.
Thirty minutes long chat sessions are pre-booked online, with real-time advice being provided by a mix of health visiting, school nursing and child and adolescent mental health teams in Rotherham, Doncaster and North Lincolnshire, depending on the nature of the enquiry.
Since launching in 2021, parents have downloaded the app to discuss how to support their youngsters through issues such as bullying, self-harm and body image.
Leana Gater, from RDaSH, said: “The app provides another way for residents to contact us without having a face-to-face appointment. It allows a parent or carer to seek discreet advice and support whilst sitting in their own home, at a convenient time, without having to have a verbal conversation, so It is particularly useful for our deaf community.”
- Vaccination Hub research project
Grounded Research, the RDaSH research team, have their fingers crossed after being shortlisted in the Clinical Research Nursing category for the team’s Vaccination Hub, which opened on the Trust’s Tickhill Road site in Doncaster last year.
The Hub is funded through the Clinical Research Network for Yorkshire and Humber by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It is a collaboration with NHS partners from primary and secondary care, local government and higher education, established originally for COVID-19 vaccine research.
Designed to be welcoming and inclusive for everyone, with input from all parts of the local community including patients and staff, the Hub played an important part in vaccine research, hosting two major studies.
The Grounded Research team has previously won the Nursing Times Clinical Research Nursing Award in 2019 for its work on increasing access to research for patients and carers and for its work with patient research ambassadors. In May this year the team won ‘Research Team of the Year’ at the NIHR Clinical Research Network, Yorkshire and Humber awards.
Heather Rice, Assistant Director of Research at Grounded Research, said: “We are thrilled to be nominated for the Nursing Times awards. It is great recognition for the nurses on our team and for the whole team effort, not just in Grounded Research but across the whole Trust. Combined with our recent Research Team of the Year award it shows the enormous progress we have made at RDaSH in research.”
- The Nursing Times award winners will be announced at a showcase event on Wednesday 26 October 2022.