Liverpool eye research nurse wins top award (12-10-09)
A specialist eye nurse in
Sandy Taylor, manager of the
The award recognises improvements to patient care, following work led by
Sandy and colleagues in the nursing team were concerned that some patients with age related macular degeneration (AMD) were at risk of developing serious problems through ineffective communication.
The problem was that AMD patients who had undergone intra-vitreal injections would wait for a nurse’s three-day follow up call to report any side effects. Staff found that some patients were not getting in touch as soon as a problem occurred.
“A number of times we noted that, rather than calling the hospital with symptoms such as a painful eye, patients were waiting for our call and this could lead to problems,” explained
A series of meetings then took place with nursing, clerical and medical staff and it was decided to continue the three-day safety check calls but also produce a revised information leaflet and urge patients to call at any time to report any side effects.
“We completely rewrote our information leaflet making it as easy to read as possible and advising patients to contact us whether in clinic time or out of hours. It means that if at 11pm someone has a sore eye and doesn’t know why, a five minute call can save a lot of worry,” explained
Her award involves a £2,000 grant towards the expense of attending a major ophthalmic conference in
“It’s fantastic to win; we were carrying out this project anyway and someone suggested we should enter the awards. I would not normally be able to go to this event in
