2017 Winning Projects – Individuals
Sarah White, MS Specialist Nurse, St George’s Hospital
“Sarah demonstrates complete commitment to the values of nursing, treating patients and carers with compassion and sensitivity.”
Sarah is the lynchpin of the MS services provided at St George’s Hospital, and, following patient feedback, developed annual MS and Newly Diagnosed MS information days. Upon learning that patients were finding it difficult to access hospital phlebotomy for DMT monitoring she was instrumental in the successful application for funding for the phlebotomist.
Despite the responsibilities of her managerial role, Sarah continues to care for a significant MS patient caseload. She has an immense depth of clinical experience that is highly valued by her patients and the whole MS MDT at St George’s.
She has shown exceptional leadership skills, relentlessly and cheerfully keeping the team afloat, despite resourcing challenges and recruitment freezes.
Sarah developed a DMT monitoring clinic and has also implemented several research initiatives within the team. Consequently, Wandsworth is now the trial roll-out area for a rapid response to suspected infection in selected MS patients.
She is truly committed to the values of nursing and instils these values into her team. She has raised the profile of MS nursing through her work with MS charities and within MS nursing networks nationally.
Rachel Morrison, MS Specialist Nurse, NHS Western Isles
“Rachel is passionate about her work, using technology to video conference patients from their own homes.”
Rachel has been instrumental in supporting people with MS living in the Western Isles, providing a comprehensive service from initial contact through to diagnostic process and longer-term care for patients and their families. She tailors her care to address the needs of those with MS using personal visits and technology, where practicable. She enables patients to contact rehabilitation consultants via videoconference in their own homes, negating the need for them to fly to Glasgow.
Rachel is committed to delivering excellence to her patients and is extremely knowledgeable about the range of medications available for them as well as potential side effects.
Rachel is involved in planning and organising a range of training opportunities for staff and patients alike. She has trained home carers and student nurses in how best to support complex MS cases and gives talks on MS to local groups. She organises information events throughout the Western Isles aimed at raising awareness of MS. She has led on the implementation of a localised service for both Tysabri and JCV testing, enabling patients to be managed closer to their own homes without leaving the islands.
She goes above and beyond in her determination to provide her patients with the best care possible.
Tania Burge, MS Specialist Physiotherapist, North Bristol NHS Trust
“Tania’s leadership to develop and forge new services within an NHS in austerity shows great innovation and dedication.”
Tania puts people with MS at the centre of her service development initiatives and patient care. She firmly believes in team working delivered in a variety of settings such as MDTs within the hospital or community-based leisure centre teams. She has developed partnerships with the local leisure centre to allow extended NHS services for PwMS, such as swimming, running, and mountain climbing helping to facilitate the important goal of reducing falls and thus the risk of hospital admissions.
Tania undertakes all initial assessments and in conjunction with PwMS selects follow-on treatments maintaining strong communication within her team to provide seamless care. She trains and mentors other physiotherapists, gym and swim instructors and members of the MDT team and has presented her initiatives and knowledge at both national and International conferences.
She has recruited, developed and trained a strong team of ten instructors with a special interest in MS at the local leisure centre. She is committed to multidisciplinary working and has incorporated sports instructors with a variety of backgrounds including sports science, personal trainers and swim instructors, thus developing the rehabilitation team.
Dr Adnan Al-Araji, Consultant Neurologist, Director and Lead, Royal Stoke MS Centre
“Dr Al-Araji endeavours to be available to support MS nurse colleagues and other members of the team, the aim being to prove he is a genuine team player. During his leadership, the number of MS patients is increasing.”
Dr Al-Araji’s excellent leadership skills have enabled him to develop and improve the regional MS service in the North Midlands. He has built up strong relationships with nursing and medical colleagues, leading a highly active, dedicated and passionate team, to ensure everyone works seamlessly and collaboratively to look after people with MS.
Dr Al-Araji has brought clinical experience in MS and diagnostic skills to the Royal Stoke MS Centre, fostering effective relationships with the imaging department and the nursing and medical team involved in lumbar punctures. He has a passion for clinical work and likes to be visible in clinics demonstrating good leadership, professionalism, and an affinity with patients.
He is keen to adhere to national and local clinical guidelines but also considers the patient as a whole, rather than just treating the MS. His approach is holistic and he always recognises that the final decision must be made by the patient.
Dr Al-Araji has provided effective mentorship, teaching and sharing experiences within the MS team.
Aoife Shields, Principle Pharmacist, Multiple Sclerosis, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust
“Aoife is very patient focused and always goes out of her way to ensure that her patients receive the best possible care.”
Aoife’s previous experience in cancer services has enabled her to proactively develop rigorous screening protocols and monitoring guidelines for all disease modifying drugs, which required significant changes in both the MS and the pharmacy service. She introduced an early screening process with a “no bloods no drugs” practice to make sure that patients receive their treatment safely and in a timely manner.
She ensures that bloods and scans are followed up and she has developed a pathway for unwell patients so that they are now reviewed four times a week. Aoife has implemented and coordinated new homecare services for MS medication to be delivered to the patient’s home.
She has been working closely with the MS nursing team to make sure that patients receive comprehensive and holistic consultation about their disease and available treatments. Aoife also sees MS patients in clinic discussing the available treatment and possible risks so they can raise any questions or concerns about their treatment and have all the information necessary to make an informed choice
Aoife is a key contact for the MS team and patients for any clinical queries regarding travel, vaccinations, side effects and many others, and follows up high risk patients personally, keeping them informed at every stage.
Jody Barber, Senior Neurological Physiotherapist, Hertfordshire Neurological Service
“She engages the patient with her negiotiation skills to help them find solutions to solve problems in a way that is relevant to them.”
Jody has been instrumental in developing a one stop shop for patients with MS within Hertfordshire’s Neurological Service. She understands and listens to her patients’ needs, allowing her to provide them with practical solutions to every day functional issues. Feedback from patients is that they were fully engaged in their health assessment and listened to by Jody and they really understood and trusted her.
Jody has 20 years’ experience in neurology, in particular vestibular management, spasticity and pain management, which makes a vast difference to patients’ quality of life.
As part of her role on the education committee for Therapists in MS (TiMS), she has initiated a project that involves filming real life examples of how to assess patients with spasticity. She is passionate about educating both HCPs and patients to maximise the the care of people with MS.
Gillian Burdon, MS Occupational Therapist, Wye Valley NHS Trust
“Gillian has a drive to develop the service and foster strong relationships with her patients and their support networks.”
Gillian works in a small MS team, comprising one other nurse and herself and between them they have a caseload of 600 people with MS. Her main remit is to provide a responsive fatigue management and vocational rehab service. She provides a holistic approach to her assessments and is extremely skilled at coordinating complex care management, specifically complex discharges.
Her vocational rehab service is outstanding, and she regularly liases with employers to deliver reasonable adjustments to help patients remain in employment, and goes above and beyond to facilitate this, attending meetings outside her working hours. This is really valued by her patients who feel they are listened to and valued.
Gillian was recently nominated for a student mentor award at Worcester Univercity and facilitates one student placement a year. Clinical supervision is paramount to self development and best practice and Gillian regards this extremely highly, being a driving force in helping others develop their supervision skillls.
Ben Dorward, Lead Neurosciences Pharmacist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
“The success of the system is built upon the importance of the contribution of a range of staff groups to ensure the safe provision and monitoring of DMTs. The system is a conduit through which those inputs meet, and it has facilitated greater involvement of clinical pharmacy teams.”
Ben has helped to develop the prescription management module of an informatics system which interlinks with a blood monitoring module to manage disease modifying therapies (DMTs) for MS. Across the Sheffield MS service catchment people who are treated with DMTs are able to attend locally for safety monitoring blood tests, and several different hospital laboratory systems are utilised to facilitate this. The Sheffield system automates the production, and an electronic log of the generation and progress of all homecare prescriptions. This information is accessible by all members of the multidisciplinary MS team, as well as the pharmacy team who support the administration and management of homecare prescriptions.
The integrated system of blood monitoring and prescription generation enables the hospital pharmacists to easily access patients’ most up-to-date blood tests, and ensure it is clinically appropriate and safe to release the prescription to the homecare companies for dispensing.
Dr Timothy Harrower, Consultant Neurologist and Senior Clinical Lecturer, North Devon District Hospital, Barnstaple and Royal Devon & Exeter Hospitals
“Tim is a dedicated practitioner who approaches people with MS with compassion and sensitivity. He is valued for his honesty and humour by both PwMS and the multidisciplinary team.”
Tim works across a large rural area of Devon, running services at two District General Hospitals (North Devon District General and Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trusts). He runs dedicated MS and botulinum toxin clinics and is passionate about is passionate about providing services close to peoples’ homes. He has been instrumental together with the MS nurses in enabling Tysabri services to run at both hospitals.
Patients feel that Tim listens to them and makes them fully aware their ongoing treatment plan, which makes partnership working with the person and the team a reality. Tim is a keen advocate for multidisciplinary working across the acute and neuro wards regularly liasing with different disciplines as needed. His role involves liaison, goal setting and measurement of impact with many disciplines including nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, pharmacists, speech and language therapists.
Tim is very keen on promoting research and is involved in recruiting for a number of studies including Fingolimod observational study (Passage) and Tysabri Observational Study (TOP). Patients really value his advice and expertise when they discuss treatments with him including alternative or obscure treatments.
Gosia Kuran, MS Specialist Nurse, King’s College Hospital
“Gosia is a conscientious, compassionate and knowledgeable member of the MS team, putting patients at the centre of all she does.”
Gosia goes the extra mile to really listen to and understand her patients’ needs, advocating on their behalf to ensure they have access to appropriate drug therapy or treatment plans. She outlines individual cases at MDT meetings, ensuring that those team members involved in the patient journey understand the particular needs of that patient.
Gosia has established excellent working relationships with other specialities including cardiology, endocrinology, respiratory and imaging to provide prompt access together with advice and support should this be required.
She is a pivotal member of the MS team at King’s and has been key in developing clinical guidelines and patient pathways for drug therapies. She is always willing to teach and share information with her colleagues and has set up a series of workshops on common symptoms of MS and how to manage them.
Gosia is a conscientious, compassionate and knowledgeable member of the MS team at King’s College Hospital, and her in-depth knowledge of MS and how this affects patients’ lives has earnt her the respect of clinical colleagues at all levels.
Lesley Murray, Advanced Pharmacist for Neurosciences, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, NHSGGC
“Lesley’s dedication and expert clinical knowledge has highlighted what pharmacy has to offer for MS patients and practitioners within NHSGGC.”
As the pharmacy leads for neurosciences within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lesley is responsible for advising the Health Board and Scottish Medicines Consortium on the potential impact of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in the MS service. She is an invaluable source of pharmaceutical knowledge for patients, consultants, specialist nurses and fellow pharmacists. Lesley has developed the role of pharmacists in MS research through the supervision of several projects gaining real-world experience with DMTs and has also supervised a project investigating the real-world efficacy of Fingolimod in comparison with the landmark studies.
Lesley has developed a local prescription template for alemtuzumab in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). This prescription has improved the experience for alemtuzumab patients by ensuring that the supportive medicines required for discharge are always remembered and ordered on admission.
Lesley is a true inspiration, managing to support the MS team whilst also maintaining an excellent pharmacy service to the general neurology and neurocritical care wards. She plays an equally active role in the headache service and epilepsy team and oversees the neurosurgical pharmacy team.