We caught up with the Nurse/Nursing Team of the Year Award shortlist ahead of this year’s General Practice Awards ceremony to be held on 6 December at the Novotel London West.
When it comes to patient-centred care in a large, urban setting, the Brownlow Health Nursing Team has set a great standard.
As part of a busy city centre practice in Liverpool, serving a diverse patient population of 80,000, the team has developed a range of specialist roles to meet unique healthcare needs. By recruiting dedicated diabetes and respiratory specialist nurses and establishing homeless in-reach and mental health practitioner roles, the team has created a care model that stands out as innovative and forward thinking.
Faced with the challenges of recruitment and increasing GP workloads, Brownlow Health Nursing Team has embraced non-traditional primary care roles to deliver highly focused and quality-driven services. This approach has allowed for the expansion of patient access and appointment capacity while ensuring that the nursing team remains highly skilled and adaptable.
The management team, comprising three nurse managers and led by a nurse partner, has cultivated a multi-disciplinary team with the expertise to handle complex cases, chronic conditions, frailty and the health of the homeless population.
The Brownlow Health Nursing Team’s initiatives have had a profound impact on patient outcomes and practice efficiency. For example, the recruitment of a respiratory specialist nurse helped address critical gaps in care for children with asthma, resulting in an increase in completed asthma management plans from 41% to 84% across four practices.
In addition, the team’s diabetic specialist nurse supplied the winning entry in a poster competition held by the Primary Care Diabetes Society, with support for patients experiencing homelessness or suffering from drug or alcohol addiction being the focus.
Beyond their clinical contributions, the Brownlow Health Nursing Team has created a supportive environment that aims to empower every member to thrive. A focus is placed on internal career pathways, comprehensive mentorship, and structured training ensures continuous growth for nurses across all levels. As a testament to this, all 13 nurse practitioners have been supported to progress to ANPs through successful completion of the RCN credentialing programme and progression to band 8a.
The team’s efforts to build a cohesive, innovative, and compassionate nursing team have not gone unnoticed. The testimonials received highlight the benefits of their initiatives.
‘Since the frailty service began, it has made a massive improvement to palliative care at all Brownlow practices,’ said a GSR co-ordinator. ‘The comprehensive assessments have meant [the team] is identifying patients for GSF much earlier… This has made a huge difference and allowed patients to die how and where they wanted, which is my main priority for palliative care.’
The team’s impact extends beyond the practice walls, as seen in their work with the homeless community and partnerships with local universities to support a 25,000-strong student population.
Within the team, the collaborative approach is paying dividends. ‘I would like to say that the joint working with the frailty team has been amazing and so supportive for me with some of our extremely complex patients,’ the Brownlow diabetes specialist nurse said, adding: ‘I feel like the two roles are really working well together. I am so grateful for the extra support’.
The members of the nurse management team said they are proud to have successfully created a multi-skilled group of nurses.
They added: ‘This range of experience and skill mix has enabled the team to provide a more focused, quality driven service to meet the health needs of our patients, while also improving patient access and appointment capacity.’
