Rachel Bryce has been shortlisted for Oncology Nurse of the Year
We are pleased to share that Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Rachel Bryce, has been shortlisted for the Oncology Nurse of the Year award as part of The British Journal of Nursing Awards. This is for her remarkable work in improving the nursing care of acute oncology patients, their assessment, triage and emergency care.
Prior to September 2019, acute oncology patients had to call the ward or day unit for specialist chemotherapy advice. This led to complaints of delays; the phones were engaged or nurses unavailable. Determined to improve patient experience, in 2020 Rachel and her dedicated team established a single phone number, staffed predominantly by the specialist Acute Oncology team, that patients could call directly for the specialist advice that they require.
“Although I have been nominated as an individual, I really do see this as a team award as I could not do my job without the amazing support and hard work from our fantastic team of 5 nurses, 1 HCA and our incredible administrator, Shirley. Shirley’s accurate, comprehensive data entry and audit enabled us to prove the value of this service and was invaluable in helping us to expand it. Thank you to Sian Dennison for the nomination, and for all her continued support and guidance which she provides to us all. 
“Finally, thank you to the wider oncology team, including consultants, registrars, Brent ward staff and CNSs, for helping us develop this service to provide our oncology patients with this much improved and more effective pathway. I feel very privileged to work within such an amazing team” explains Rachel.
As one third of acute oncology patients require face-to-face assessment, patients were being admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) and had to wait to be referred for their specialist care. This changed in February 2020, when oncology was able to secure approval to convert four inpatient beds to a specialist assessment bay on Brent ward, therefore trying to avoid patients attending ED as a proof of concept. Rachel has since expanded the Acute Oncology team and managed to ease pressure on the inpatient and day-case nursing teams, therefore improving the nursing service as a whole.
Enabling patients to have direct access to the specialist teams that they need to have close contact with has resulted in reduced length of stay and admissions, reduced cost implications, and most importantly, provided a better pathway and experience for our patients. A survey of patient satisfaction with triage demonstrated 98.75% positive experience, coupled with many supportive comments.
Lenny Byrne, Chief Nurse and Director of Integrated Professions, adds, “Rachel was invited to attend the Trust Board who unanimously recognised the significant contribution her leadership and innovation had made to putting patients first, improving patient experience and maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of the services available to patients at the most important and critical times in their lives. It was clear to the Board that the success of Rachel’s work was underpinned by her nursing determination, her inspiration and her compassion for people in her care.”
We would like to wish her the best of luck for the awards ceremony which she will attend in London, on 25 March 2022.
