Virtual ward team honoured by patients for standard of care received at home

A virtual ward team has been applauded for going above and beyond for its patients who are cared for in the comfort of their own homes.

The fantastic work of the Afan virtual ward, and in particular its assistant nurse practitioner Steve Jones (pictured), has been honoured by multiple patients and their families.

Swansea Bay’s virtual wards work with frail, elderly and vulnerable people, using a multidisciplinary team approach to oversee and optimise their care and ensure they can remain safely at home, enjoying the best quality of life they can.

The service eases pressure on hospitals by taking a preventive approach to reduce admissions and supporting earlier discharges home for appropriate inpatients, while also reducing the risk of readmission.

A multidisciplinary team made up of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists and others, discusses how to plan and manage each patient’s care, with face-to-face assessment and care still carried out.

Now, Steve and the team have recently received multiple Patient Choice Awards from grateful patients and their families across the Afan LCC area, which covers the Port Talbot area.

The Patient Choice Awards are an annual feature of the health board’s staff recognition programme, with patients and relatives choosing the nominations.

Kathleen Lang, whose mother-in-law was under the care of the virtual ward, was one who nominated Steve.

She said: “Steve had compassion, empathy and paid attention to detail, identifying signs of deterioration.

“He arranged emergency care, all done while still creating a calm atmosphere, explaining everything to us as a family.

“Steve looked after my mother-in-law with such dedication to his role and the profession. He is such a credit to the nursing profession and the NHS, and we will be forever grateful.”

Steve’s role as an assistant nurse practitioner sees him carry out initial assessments on patients to identify their needs and make any referrals to other specialities such as occupational therapists or district nurses, for example.

“Patient care is what keeps me going,” he said.

“It was a bit of a shock to find out about the awards. Initially I had an email to say I had been nominated personally, and then we received one as a team, followed by another one.

“So we had three nominations in total and we were all quite shocked and overwhelmed. To get one is an achievement but to receive three, we were quite surprised.

“It was a lovely reward of knowing we have done our jobs to the best of our abilities.”

Another of the nominations was submitted by Anna-Marie Jones, who called the virtual ward team a credit to the NHS.

In her submission, she said: “Each staff member from admin to the consultant valued me and treated me as a person in the comfort of my own home.

“They each were compassionate and had empathy.

“What struck me and my family was that each team member went above and beyond their duties.

“The team are an absolute credit to our NHS and are an example of good quality care in leading patient care.”

Another nomination for the team read: “I can honestly say that neither my mother, nor my father by default, has ever had such a positive experience regarding their health.

“The team, with staff in various professional disciplines, treated her with dignity, care and respect. They took time to listen to her, to value what she had to say and to make her feel prioritised.

“Steve, who came to the house to take her bloods, and subsequently an ECG, was so gentle and attentive in his manner. He gave her time to share her concerns which is so important for her mental wellbeing and recovery.

“The service was speedy in its response and action and she had the benefit of a number of different health professionals’ expertise in a short period of time.”

Steve said it had been a very rewarding experience for the team to receive such positive feedback.

“The virtual ward is a much-needed service,” he said.

“It’s more personalised, direct and efficient for patients. The centre of care for patients is in their own homes and it helps avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

“It also facilitates earlier discharges too to help take the pressure off our hospitals.

“The patients recover better in their own home, as a lot of them don’t want to go into hospital.

“It has been very rewarding for us as a team to achieve these three awards from patients themselves.”

He added: “Some of them may have gone through a difficult time or lost a loved one but they have still taken the time to share their positive feedback with us.”

The Patient Choice Awards are an annual feature of Swansea Bay University Health Board’s staff recognition programme and are awarded directly as a result of patient and family nominations. This time more than 500 nominations were received with hundreds of awards handed out across more than a dozen events.