NURS ING L EADERSHI P
signs and symptoms of cardiac disease, they will see one of our GPs in one of our fitness and wellbeing centres or health clinics; they will have their diagnostic tests with Nuffield Health and, if they need to go on to have treatment, they will meet one of our cardiac nurse specialists, who will stay with the patient thoughout their cardiac journey. Patients are admitted into the Nuffield Health at St Bartholomew’s hospital, where they have their surgery using state-of-the-art
equipment, to enable the best outcome. Once their episode of care is finished, they go on to have their cardiac rehabilitation with Nuffield Health. There is a real gap in the independent sector in terms of cardiac rehabilitation. Often, if you have cardiac surgery, you are then referred to another provider or on to the NHS to have cardiac rehabilitation.
Where there is this gap, outcomes can be affected as there is a very long waiting list. This is a really important time to get patients well again and it requires a multidisciplinary approach.
Once the patient is discharged from hospital, they will come back to Nuffield Health’s fitness and wellbeing centre in neighbouring Barbican or any other location across the UK; they will have an exercise programme with a physiotherapist, which is personalised and designed to build up their cardiovascular fitness – this lasts 6-8 weeks, depending on how quickly the patient responds.
At the same time, the cardiac rehabilitation nurse will go through the medication with the patient and talk through the life changes that may be required, such as managing stress and making sure they
are managing their work/life balance. They spend time with a nutritional therapist, looking at diet and how this impacts recovery, as well as ongoing wellbeing and cardiovascular fitness.
They also spend time with one of our psychologists talking through the changes that are sometimes difficult to make after a cardiac event. A cardiac event or cardiac surgery is lifechanging for a patient, so it is really important to have this psychological input. It also includes family members, so we support not only the physical but also the mental health component of the patient’s care. The consultant is also part of that journey so if there are any complications, they are on hand to fix these as quickly as possible.
Q. How will you ensure high quality care at the new hospital? A. As Nuffield Health doesn’t answer to shareholders, it can reinvest its income into delivering excellence in patient care. This also means the new hospital can access the latest technologies. In terms of care excellence, another key component is the people.
Nuffield Health’s values of being ethically inclusive, flexible, responsive and aspirational will guide how we all work in the new hospital. We need to make sure that we have a nursing workforce that is highly skilled and help them to be the best version of themselves, to deliver excellent care to patients.
This means providing the nursing workforce with access to the right training and professional development, and we support this through our Nuffield Health Academy. We offer a wide range of professional skills development, through a mix of virtual classroom, online learning and face-to-face learning. This also includes leadership development – nurses need to be leaders. This gives nurses not just the clinical tools but also the leadership skills to really make a difference in delivering excellent patient care.
When our nurses go home at the end
of a shift, they feel like they have made a difference to a patient’s life as well as their family. This is an important part of the healthcare experience. We want nurses to go home energised, by feeling they have made a difference, because they have the skills and support to do their job. We also need to make sure we have all the wrap- around services in place, including practice educators that support the nursing team to improve their skills. They support them when things are tough or when things go wrong, and they encourage them to always think ‘how can we improve?’ This is an important part of shaping the nursing workforce. Ultimately, our ability to provide
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