During clinical skills workshops, it became apparent that community-based staff were struggling with clinical skills training due to the geography and infrastructure of the Cumbria region, which often resulted in long journey times between community work bases and the two acute hospitals.
In response to this, Integrated Community Hubs were developed, with hub co-ordinators matching the skills required by the community-based staff member with the relevant patient attending for treatment.
In this way, staff have accessible provision for maintaining competency, which improves staff wellbeing and ultimately improves the patient experience.
Speaking after winning the award, Debra Sargent, Clinical Education and Workplace Learning Facilitator at NCIC, said: “We were in complete shock when they announced us as winners as we thought that the team who came second would have won.
“Having an area where staff can be supported to gain competency that is accessible to them was very important to us.
“We are hoping to use the prize money to roll the project out to other ICC’s thus helping all of our staff.
“The support we received from the Engaging For Improvement team at CLIC was invaluable and I would encourage others to use this process to further their ideas.
“Jen Riera and her team at Maryport Day Hospital were so engaged from the start that they made the whole process easier with support from Zoe Larmour and truly show how collaboration works for the benefit of both the staff and the people trusting us with their health.
“Sue and I were thrilled to receive the award and show that Cumbria is an exciting place to work.”
The team - Debra Sargent, Sue Harper, Sheena Bleasdale and Jen Riera won the Innovation in Education category at the Bright Ideas in Health Awards 2019 for the development of Integrated Competency Hubs.