UHNM Charity gives patient care at County a real shot in the arm

Patient experience, treatment and flow on wards at County hospital will all be further improved thanks to UHNM Charity.

Our fundraiser’s efforts were definitely not in vein as we have been able to purchase a number of venepuncture and cannulation training pads.

These special pads which are full of fake blood and can be placed on the arm, allow our educators to hold regular training sessions for nurses at County hospital.

Rachael Kingston, Senior Practice Development Nurse at County hospital said: “By having this new equipment to learn and practice on, nurses will be able to develop both confidence and competence in these skills in a controlled training environment.”

“We’ve been moving towards all registered nurses being able to perform venepuncture and cannulation. These are skills that are taught at university when they come into nursing, but often there can be a gap between learning it in the classroom then carrying out the skill in real life on the wards. The equipment during training could also be different to here at UHNM, and there could also be staff who have worked here for a number of years and not had the chance to learn previously. So this gives us an opportunity for them to get used to our equipment, policies and processes.”

Healthcare assistants will also benefit from localised training which was previously held at Royal Stoke.

Rachael added: “Having more staff trained in venepuncture and cannulation is great news for patients at County as this enables bloods to be taken promptly so results can come back quicker and faster discharge rates because we’re not waiting for results to come back later in the day.”