A nurse who has devised a scheme to help people with learning disabilities leave long term care has been shortlisted for one of the profession’s top accolades.
Ashleigh Fox from Bristol-based Catalyst Care Group has been selected from 920 entries as a finalist in the Learning Disability Nursing category of the RCN Nursing Awards 2023 for her efforts to tackle the problem of delayed discharges from care settings.
Ms Fox will find out if she has won at a ceremony on Friday 10 November at Liverpool Cathedral. The overall RCN Nurse of the Year 2023, selected from all the category winners, will also be announced at the event.
Ms Fox was one of two whistleblowers who raised concerns about the abuse of people with learning disabilities at Winterbourne View care home. The home was subsequently the subject of an undercover Panorama investigation.
Following the experience, Ms Fox wanted to create a multi-agency model to help patients – and services – struggling to discharge people with learning disabilities from long term care homes.
Teaming up with Catalyst Care Group CEO Trevor Mapondera, she has piloted the Bridging Support initiative. The model sees transition teams of highly qualified, engaged clinicians work with people who have been in long-term seclusion to create safe discharge pathways. The scheme has so far enabled around 150 people to return home or remain in their own communities, avoiding hospital admission.
Ms Fox said: ‘A truly creative solution is needed for people who have experienced complex trauma, and been held in long term seclusion. We’ve seen how thinking outside the box, in a truly human-centred way, has given people and their families their lives back after believing they would be inpatients for the rest of their lives.
‘I am so excited, and incredibly humbled to be shortlisted. The proudest moment of my life was when I graduated as a learning disability nurse almost 15 years ago, and since that day this has been my identity. We need more learning disability nurses, and this is an opportunity to fly the flag and bring more people into our amazing profession.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: ‘Our inspiring finalists demonstrate the very best of nursing and what can be achieved in some of the challenging times for the profession.
‘They highlight the wide variety of ways nurses improve the care of people at all stages of life and how they demonstrate their professionalism and clinical excellence every day, and in every setting, throughout the UK.’
The Foundation of Nursing Studies is the award’s charity partner this year. Its chief executive and current chair of the judging panel Joanne Bosanquet MBE said: ‘The quality of entries this year was superb and it was near impossible to choose our finalists from the creative and innovative work submitted.
‘The shortlist showcases excellence and recognises the enormous difference that nurses make to people’s lives throughout the UK.’
The RCN Nursing Awards will this year be held alongside the inaugural Nursing Live, a new and dynamic event for everyone who works in nursing. Hosted over two days (November 10th-11th) at the ACC complex in Liverpool, the event will focus on both the professional and personal development of nurses at every stage of their careers and will be the first event of its kind for the sector.
