The nursing team at Liverpool’s Brownlow Health Central is celebrating a major win after being named Nursing Team of the Year at the General Practice Awards 2024.
The team won the award – hosted by Nursing in Practice’s publisher Cogora and sponsored by YGAM, Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust – from a shortlist of five after a year of success at the practices that serve a diverse population of 80,000 patients.
The Brownlow Health Central team has developed a range of specialist roles to meet the unique healthcare needs of the city. By recruiting dedicated diabetes and respiratory specialist nurses and establishing homeless in-reach and mental health practitioner roles, they have created a care model that leans on specialist staff knowledge and stands out for its forward thinking.
To manage recruitment issues and increasing GP workloads the team has expanded its non-traditional primary care roles to deliver focused and quality-driven specialist services.
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Focusing on specialist roles has allowed the centre to expand patient access and improve appointment capacity at the busy practices in the heart of Liverpool.
The management team, comprising three nurse managers and led by a nurse partner, has developed a multi-disciplinary team with the expertise to address the complex and chronic conditions, including those faced by frail and homeless practice patients.
Juliette Palmer, diabetes specialist nurse at Brownlow Health Centre, told Nursing in Practice: ‘We’ve found it helpful to focus on the specialty roles where we’ve broken it down, diabetes, respiratory, sexual health, where we’ve struggled to recruit practice nurses and senior experienced nurses.
‘We’ve broken it down a little bit and that’s been a huge success for us,’ she explained.
The Brownlow Health Nursing Team has also cultivated a supportive environment, with a focus on internal career pathways, comprehensive mentorship and the growth of all nurses at the practice.
All 13 of the nurse practitioners at Brownlow have been supported to progress to advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) through their completion of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) credentialing programme and progression to band 8a.
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The General Practice Awards, held on Friday 6 December in London, have been running for over 16 years. Members of the winning team were pictured (above) receiving their award with host John Robins, stand-up comedian, presenter and podcaster.
In total, 19 trophies were awarded on the night, including GP of the Year and Practice Manager of the Year.
Head of event marketing at Cogora, Jess Cornish, said: ‘The General Practice Awards are an opportunity to shine a light on the incredible teams and individuals who work tirelessly to ensure that their patients and the wider community have access to healthcare services that meet their needs and offer real support.
‘We were blown away once again by the entries received, with nominations for GPs, nurses, reception teams, pharmacists, digital innovators, social prescribers and counselling staff as well as industry suppliers.’
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See here for all the winners at The General Practice Awards 2024.
Photographer: Julian Claxton
