Released: 25 July 2007

Cardiff Nurse presents to association of coloproctology conference after winning Edward Salt Award

Are we providing an adequate and appropriate level of follow-up care to bowel cancer patients? That was question Colorectal Nurse Specialist Cath Powell wanted to answer when she entered the Edward Salt Award 2006.

Established in 2004, the Award is part of an initiative by Salts Healthcare to further promote ever-better standards of patient care - and offers the winning nurse the opportunity to carry out a work placement within any Acute Trust or community based coloproctology department within the UK.

After being informed that she had won the award, Cath chose to visit the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Homerton Hospital in London, the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to compare the service they provided with that provided at Llandough Hospital in Cardiff where Cath has worked for the past 15 years. She has recently completed her visits and presented her findings at the Association of Coloproctology Conference held in Glasgow in early July.

“I was both excited and terrified at the same time when I discovered I’d won this award,” Cath said. “It’s a real honour to have this opportunity and one that I felt could really benefit our hospital as well as others offering similar services, but the prospect of speaking at the conference after I’d conducted my research was really daunting.”

Explaining the reasons behind her research, Cath said: “It had become apparent that there is no real consistency in follow-up care across UK hospitals and I wanted to look for examples of best practice across the four centres of excellence I was visiting and to use these to develop a policy for our own nurse-led follow-up clinic and to help improve other clinics across the country. This would enable us to work together to improve the service we provide and enhance the patient experience.

“The results showed patients were subjected to a ‘postcode lottery’ in terms of the frequency and type of care that was offered and that there is a real need for standardisation as part of Colorectal Cancer Guidelines. I really hope that relevant departments in all our hospitals take note of my findings and put policies in force that will reduce waiting times, improve patient care and increase patient satisfaction as well as reducing unnecessary duplication of care and making more effective use of Consultant time.”

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PHOTOGRAPH: Catherine (second from right) celebrates with colleagues and members of the Salt’s team.