Nurse up for national award for helping to introduce innovative app
An experienced nurse has been named as a finalist for a national award for her role in introducing an innovative wound-scanning app within Swansea Bay.
Catrin Codd helped pave the way for the Minuteful for Wound app which has enabled staff to scan and measure wounds so they can be monitored virtually.
Developed by technology company Healthy.io, the app logs each image on a digital portal so staff can look at them to see how they are healing.
It enables wounds to be assessed more accurately and consistently, while also saving time for nurses who may not need to visit the patient’s home for monitoring.
The app has been used across district nursing and the community wound clinic for the last three years, and as a result it has enabled more than 1,800 extra appointments to be offered to patients.
Now, Catrin (pictured), who is the health board’s Senior Professional Nurse Advocate for district nursing, has been named as a finalist at this year’s RCN Wales Nurse of the Year Awards in the Research, Innovation and Digitalisation in Nursing category.
“Introducing the app was a massive learning curve as we didn’t have a project manager and had to implement it alongside our substantive posts,” she said.
“Previously, our nurses would have filled out patient notes and assessments on paper and measured wounds with a disposable tape measure.
“It has helped us to provide patients with the care they require sooner, because the images can be seen remotely it means we can get specialist advice much quicker.
“Rather than staff having to leave the patient’s home, refer them and make an appointment, they can access the advice a lot quicker and they could potentially still be in the patient’s home.”
As a result, the wound clinic has become paper-free, as the app stores the images and documentation.
The switch has helped to save more than 447,000 sheets of paper per year within district nursing and the wound clinic, which resulted in staff being presented with the Chief Nursing Officer’s Sustainability in Nursing and Midwifery award.
Senior nurses have also saved more than 2,000 hours a year of travel time, while there has been a saving of 30 per cent less time spent on face-to-face reviews for tissue viability nurses.
It has also helped patients to become more involved in their care, with plans in place to allow patients to scan themselves.
Pictured: Catrin with the app on her tablet.
Catrin added: “Patients have given very positive feedback since we have been using the app.
“They have said they feel more positive about the progress of their wounds healing and the app has helped them to feel more involvement in their care.
“Going forward, there are plans for patients to be able to scan themselves and then we can view them remotely.
“We will be able to monitor how their wound is progressing remotely and if it is deteriorating we would intervene.
“For example, if a patient visits the wound clinic multiple times a week, they should potentially self-care for one of those days instead and staff would still have the oversight of how their wound is developing.”
The winners of the Royal College of Nursing Awards will be announced at an event in Cardiff on Thursday 21st November.
Catrin said: “I was a bit surprised when I found out as I didn’t know that I had been nominated.
“Everyone has put in so much work to get to this point, as we started using the app alongside our normal jobs too.
“It is great to have the recognition because it has been a lot of effort, learning and commitment from everybody that has been involved.”
Paula Heycock, Head of Nursing for the health board’s Primary Community Therapies Group, said: “I nominated Catrin for the award, as a clear leader and innovator, particularly in the digital space.
“Catrin has been front and centre leading on this project, not only within Swansea Bay, but nationally across Wales.
“She has worked with the company to develop a system that is robust and has the functionality needed for use in clinical practice.
“Catrin has been instrumental in education, training, and widening the use within Swansea Bay, reaching out to microbiology and ALAC for access to the system.
“This has provided a multidisciplinary team approach to improving patient care.
“I am extremely proud to be part of a community team that are leaders in digital innovation.”
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