'Oh when the saints...'

All SaIINTS at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital!

We want you to welcome our new team - the SaIINTS. 

As in many other organisations, the clinical nurse specialists at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn used link nurses to act as a conduit between themselves and the clinical areas. However, it was noticed that increasingly the link nurses were unable to get away from their clinical areas to attend these meetings due to low staffing levels. In addition, some groups had up to five different link nurses and there was some overlap between the groups members – i.e. one nurse have been the link for 2 different groups.

Accordingly, senior nurses Jane Parker (Tissue Viability), Glynis Bennett (Infection Control), Adrian Debney (Practice Development Nurse), Dawn Marsh (Continence) and Donna Fowler (Dermatology), decided to amalgamate the link groups into one big group – The SaIINTS. The acronym stands for:

• Skin (Dermatology)
• Infection Prevention and Control
• Incontinence (Continence)
• Nutrition
• Tissue viability
• The last ‘S’ is for Support

The SaIINTS will be given a badge with the logo so that there is a group identity [Figure 1]<h2>Figure 1</h2><p><img src="https://pcnr.co.uk/images/297_untitled2.png"></p>. The ward managers/department leads are given the choice to have one person as the SaIINTS link, or send the link nurse for the leading speciality.

An agenda is sent out in advance so that both the links and the managers are aware of which speciality will be leading each meeting. The plan is to have five meetings throughout the year; the lead speciality for the meeting will have a one hour slot to raise awareness of issues and deliver education of a topic of their choice. The other specialities will have 20 minutes each to give any updates from their own departments. The link nurses are then given time to feedback from their own wards/departments.

Aims of SaIINTS

Working as a large group means we can offer a holistic approach to patient care.  It also will reduce the amount of ‘lost’ staff time by, for example, not having to attend five separate link meetings.

What we hope that staff will think about how the specialities link together so a more holistic approach to patient care is achieved.

Watch this space for updates!