23 November 2015
A specialist stoma care nurse has won a £500 research award for her department thanks to work she has done on removing stents more quickly following bladder surgery.
Nurse specialist Diane Leach, who works in the urology department at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, was awarded the prize by the Association of Stoma Care Nurses UK (ASCN), supported by the Urostomy Association.
It recognises her research into removing ureteric stents from patients following a urostomy (an operation to create a stoma following bladder surgery).
Typically the stents are removed ten days after surgery, with patients returning to hospital as a day case for the procedure.
But Diane’s research has shown that in many cases the stents could be removed more quickly, which would negate patients having to return as a day case and mean they could be assessed on the ward rather than by a community nurse follow-up.
Diane, who was also a joint runner up in the Stoma Care Nurse of the Year award, said: “At the moment, stents usually stay in for a standard period of ten days.
“When I looked into it I realised there was no reason that it couldn’t be done sooner with no complications if the patient is medically well.
“It would help to reduce length of stay and improves hospital efficiency, and mean that patients don’t have to travel back to hospital to have the stents removed.”
Diane presented her findings to a national conference of about 400 people.
“I was really proud to be able to present it to a national audience,” she said.
“I hadn’t done anything like that before so I was very nervous, but the feedback was really positive.”
She is now working with hospitals consultants to develop her work further.
The Nurse Director for Surgical Services, Gill Meek, said: “Diane has done some fantastic work and we are very proud of her achievement.”
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John Birch, Communications Officer
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