Nurse bank campaign shortlisted for national award

A successful campaign to recruit nurses to its staff bank has seen Northampton General Hospital shortlisted in the most sought-after awards in the British health sector.

The hospital's nurse bank campaign, entitled "Join our bank and we'll invest in you" has been shortlisted in the staff engagement category of the HSJ Awards.

Shortlisted entrants had to demonstrate outstanding practice and innovation that helped to improve patient care and enhance value and efficiency, and have overcome fierce competition to be judged as among UK healthcare’s leading exponents.

Targeted marketing and social media campaign

Sally-Anne Watts, NGH head of communications said: "I am immensely proud of my team and colleagues at NGH who worked with us to develop the campaign, which was developed to encourage our own workforce to join our in-house staff bank rather than seeking additional shifts via an agency.

“Using feedback from focus groups we devised and delivered a targeted marketing and social media campaign that highlighted the support and professional development available to bank staff. It promoted the benefits of bank working, including support with nurse revalidation, free clinical skills training, opportunities to get experience in different areas of the hospital and weekly pay for bank shifts.

“Feedback from our ward sisters has been that their ability to deliver high quality, safe patient care has been improved as a result of the higher number of NGH-based registered nurses who now form the majority of our nurse bank. For our patients this means they receive greater consistency of care that’s aligned to our core values.”

Saving on agency costs

As a result of the campaign, registered nurse agency expenditure reduced from 10.6 per cent in December 2015 to 7.8 per cent in March 2016 and 5.3 per cent in April 2016.

Alastair McLellan, Editor, HSJ, said: "With the NHS experiencing a tough time as funding fails to keep up with demand, the HSJ Awards are once again the best reminder of the excellence the service is capable of. Taken together the entries to the HSJ Awards represent work which, directly or indirectly, has saved thousands of lives and enhanced many times that number."

The shortlisted organisations will now complete presentations and interviews to a judging panel made up of senior and influential figures from the health sector. These include:

• Sir David Dalton, Chief Executive, Salford Royal Foundation Trust
• Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice, CQC
• Jonathan Fielden, Director of Specialised Commissioning, NHS England
• Sir Malcolm Grant, Chair, NHS England
• Ian Dodge, National Director of Commissioning Strategy, NHS England

The winners will be announced in November.