Rheumatology Nurse shortlisted for Nursing Times Awards

Congratulations to Rian Penford, Specialist Rheumatology Nurse and the Rheumatology Team at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust for being shortlisted in the prestigious Nursing Times Awards for the second year running, this time in two categories.

The Nursing Times Awards are a national event rewarding good practice and innovation in the nursing profession.

The nominations in ‘Promoting patient self-management’ and ‘Managing long term conditions’ recognise the work Rian and the team have done to help rheumatology patients self manage their condition to achieve and maintain remission of disease through the use of an app, CONNECTPlus.

From 2018 Rian worked closely with Consultant Rheumatologist Kirsten Mackay, the Rheumatology team, patients in Torbay and Health and Care Innovations (HCI) to develop a tool that has been transforming the way their department operates.

They have reported that waiting times to start a new medication have been reduced from 3 weeks to 1 week with the use of the video information contained within CONNECTPlus. Additionally, as patients are using the app to find the answers to their queries, they have seen 42.86% fewer calls to the department helpline. There has also been a huge saving in nurse clinic time with medication clinics reducing from 4 hours of nurse time a week to just 30 minutes. This has meant it is possible for nurses to prioritise their time to see patients requiring treatment.

Rheumatology was the first pathway within the newly developed app, before it moved on to becoming CONNECTPlus, with the aim of patients and clinicians being able to manage multiple conditions in one place. Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust currently use CONNECTPlus across 20 + conditions and have plans to further increase this number during 2021 and 2022.

Rian will be presenting to the judging panel on 8 and 9 September.

Find out more and see who else is on the shortlist here.