Older person's nurse fellows - transforming safety and quality of care

Liz Fenton, Nurse Adviser to Health Education England (HEE), outlines the role of Older Person's Nurse Fellows.

The Older Person's Nurse Fellowship, sponsored by HEE, is programme aimed at leading innovation and quality improvement in care for older people.

The ethos of the Older Person’s Nurse Fellowship is quality, safety, service transformation and innovation in older person’s care. The Fellowship delivers confident, competent and compassionate leaders to act as agents of change, to transform person-centred services.

Fellows are part of King’s College London and the King’s Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre. The programme enables Fellows to realise their full potential including (not limited to) becoming:

• an expert nurse in the holistic care of older people
• an innovator in quality improvement and service development
• skilled in the implementation and evaluation of innovation
• a recognised leader and role model in older person’s care
• a resilient and self-aware leader motivating others to achieve high standards in health and social care for older people
• an agent of change, shaping the future of healthcare for older people
• confident and committed to disseminating excellence in older person’s care among national and international communities.

The first cohort from a pioneering programme that aims to improve care for older people were congratulated by senior nursing officials at a special event at the House of Lords.

Baroness Sally Greengross hosted the Fellows at the House of Lords in recognition of the importance of driving quality of care for older people through investing in nurse education.  In attendance were a number of high-profile guests including Lisa Bayliss-Pratt and Sir Stephen Moss.

Entry is open to senior nurses (Bands 7/8) who are clinically active in older persons service, NMC registered with a BSc or Postgraduate Diploma.

The Older Person’s Nurse Fellowship, sponsored by Health Education England, recruited 37 Fellows to the 12 month programme, which started in January 2016 and will finish in December 2016.

The Fellows all work in older people’s services across England, and include nurses from mental health, community care, primary care, acute care, and the residential and nursing home sectors.

The Fellows will work together to expand their knowledge of contemporary models of compressive care for older people. During the second module they will undertake a quality improvement project, addressing an important issue for older people within their practice.

If you have any questions about the Fellowship, email olderpersonsfellowship@kcl.ac.uk

The Older Person's Nurse Fellowship Conference takes place on 14 June 2016, bringing together excellence in nurse leadership in research and innovation in care, and service development for older people.