Joy for Acute Pain Team after hard work won them a national award
A team of colleagues who help patients who have complex pain needs, have won a national award for consistently going above and beyond with their compassion for patients and support for other nursing colleagues.
The Royal Derby Hospital Acute Pain Team is made up of four Nurse Specialists and three anaesthetists.
In their day-to-day work the team provides high quality pain management for patients as well as offering support to nursing and medical staff on the wards. The nurses deal primarily with patients who have complex acute pain, many of which require both pharmacological and psychological support which means each patient visit can be lengthy.
Despite the high volume of clinical work they face, the team always finds the time to drive forward quality improvement work, audit existing practice and run an educational programme for ward nurses.
Now their efforts have been recognised nationally after they took home the prestigious Acute Pain Team of the Year 2022 award at the National Acute Pain Symposium (NAPS) in Warwick. Thea Addison, who also works as part of the team also earned an honourable mention in the category for Acute Pain Nurse of the Year.
Dr Stefan Valdinger, Consultant Anaesthetist said: “We are delighted to be recognised by our Peers in Acute Pain Management who facilitate such a prestigious annual symposium that has been established for well over 25 years.
“The team works so hard to help patients and colleagues and we are really pleased to see that work recognised and shine a spotlight on the acute pain team.”
Recent quality improvement initiatives done by the team include a collaboration with pre-operative assessment to improve the information provided to surgical patients which empowers them to participate in their pain management, better identification of patients at risk of poor pain management and a trial of virtual reality technology as a non-pharmacological treatment for pain and anxiety.