Nurse bank campaign shortlisted for healthcare efficiency award

A successful campaign to recruit nurses onto its staff bank has seen Northampton General Hospital shortlisted for an award that celebrates excellence in communications in the health sector.

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

Outstanding practice and innovation

Shortlisted entrants had to demonstrate outstanding practice and innovation in developing and implementing a communication strategy to support a healthcare improvement initiative.

Sally Watts, NGH head of communications said: "The campaign 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 medial 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 and weekly pay for bank shifts.

Greater consistency of care

“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.”

Reduced agency expenditure

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. 

The campaign has already won a gold award in the Public Service Communications Excellence 2016 awards run by and was a finalist in the Health Service Journal Awards in the staff engagement category. In addition, it has been adopted as a case study by NHS Improvement.

The hospital has also been shortlisted in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology category of the HSJ value awards for a project which has halved the length of time for an emergency gynaecological examination.

Winners will be announced in May.