Physiotherapist's innovative work to improve service for respiratory patients recognised with Making a Difference Award | Latest news

A Physiotherapist who made service improvements leading to better outcomes and patient experiences for people with respiratory problems, is the latest colleague to be recognised with the 'Excellence' Making a Difference Award. 

Dan Nolan, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, has successfully achieved certification to independently use lung ultrasound to assess patients in critical care, improving decision-making on timely, appropriate and effective physiotherapy treatment. 

In addition to gaining the Focused Ultrasound in Intensive Care (FUSIC) Lung accreditation, Dan also went a step further and qualified as a FUSIC Lung Mentor for allied health professionals (AHPs) which enables him to sign off competencies for other Physiotherapy staff to achieve their certification, which means more people can provide quality respiratory care for our most ill patients. 

To achieve the accreditation, Dan worked with Dr Craig Morris, an Intensive Care Consultant, who mentored him and taught him how to perform assessments using ultrasound equipment. 

Dan said: "One of the barriers to being able to learn how to use ultrasound is that there is not always enough people to sign you off. It took nine months for me of working with Dr Morris to get the accreditation and then I had to demonstrate I could use it for a year after that.

"But the benefits for patients and colleagues was so clear. Using the ultrasound, you can see very quickly whether a treatment for a patient is going to be responsive to physiotherapy or whether it needs to be escalated to a doctor so it's more time efficient. If we didn’t do the ultrasound we wouldn’t have as much information, and we might go ahead and do a treatment that might not give them the best outcome. It is innovation that is helping our patients, and I wanted to help as many colleagues as possible to be able to deliver it."

Dan is one of only a few physiotherapists across the whole country to have been awarded mentor status, prompting his colleague Nicola Leonhardt, operational therapy lead, to put him forward for a Making a Difference Award and recognise his efforts. 

Nicola said: "We are so proud of Dan, and this has been almost three years of work from him to deliver these changes which are having huge positive impacts for both our patients and our clinical teams.

"It has taken a lot of dedication but his contribution to the multi- disciplinary team (MDT) working has been significant and supports the medical team by alleviating pressure as others can now sign off the ultrasounds, while offering flexibility and other benefits to our team and wider teams."

Dan was presented with the Excellence Award by Stephen Posey, Chief Executive at UHDB who praised Dan's commitment to improvement at the organisation. 

Stephen said: "This is an impressive example of how innovative thinking and a commitment to driving improvements can truly benefit patients, while also helping to further develop the skillset of our people. 

"Dan has displayed great leadership to embed this accreditation in the organisation and is one of few Physiotherapists across the whole country to receive such status. On behalf of myself and the Board, well done and thank you."

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Our Monthly Making a Difference Awards celebrate those who have shown exceptional care and who have delivered improvements across safety, quality, effectiveness and patient experience and demonstrated the Trust values of Compassion, Openness and Excellence.