Heart Rhythm Congress 2011

The Arrhythmia Alliance Excellence in Practice Awards 2011 

And the winners are...

Charles Lobban Volunteer Award for Outstanding Contribution To Arrhythmia Services 

Anita Kiernan, STARS Volunteer

This year’s winner of the Charles Lobban Volunteer Award is very special to STARS. Since she was 16 years old she had endured multiple dizzy spells and collapses and initially the indignity of being told it was because she was a young female.

Through stressful times, with the support of her husband and brother in law (who ran marathons at the other end of the world for STARS), she has never forgotten us! Even on her wedding day she forewent wedding favours so the money could be donated to STARS.

We were very excited when she told us the news that she was expecting a baby but thrilled when she immediately asked if we thought our members would appreciate her writing a pregnancy diary – this diary has been the source of support to numerous mums to be and welcomed by Syncope Clinics!

Despite a lively daughter to manage she is now back at work and we receive regular donations from her department, following bake-ins and dress down days. An indication of how respected and admired our ‘STAR’ is.

Conscious that STARS is also dedicated to raising awareness, she agreed to do an interview for the Daily Mail on POTS and how it affected her family life. This was particularly hard as she is a private person. And then we asked if she would consider speaking at Patients Day!

Award for Outstanding Medical Contribution to Cardiac Rhythm Management Services

Jayne Mudd, Arrhythmia Nurse
James Cook Hospital, Middlesbrough, UK

HRC: Describe your role – what is a typical day like for you?
Jayne: My role as a nurse consultant in cardiac rhythm management (CRM) can vary from day to day. The role itself is split into components that include clinical practice, education, service development and research. My clinical commitments include providing nurse services for patients with or suspected of experiencing arrhythmia and for those experiencing transient loss of consciousness. I am based within the cardiology department at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough and work as part of the cardiac rhythm management team. I routinely work within clinics which include new patient, review and preadmission as well as outreach arrhythmia clinics in the community and transient loss of consciousness clinics. As a team we provide a comprehensive service for our patients which also includes a patient helpline manned by the nursing team.

HRC: Your award reflects the outstanding contribution you have made to arrhythmia services, is there a particular initiative that you are most proud of?
Jayne: I take pride in all aspects of my work but the initiatives that I have been most proud to be involved in have been the development of our outreach arrhythmia clinics which resulted in improved access to specialist services for patients within their own locality and the more recent development of the transient loss of consciousness (TLOC)service. This is a multi-disciplinary / multi-specialty service with cardiology and neurology teams working together to provide prompt access to assessment, diagnosis and treatment for this patient group. The service has been running for 11 months and has proven to be very successful to date.

HRC: If there was a Quality Standard for arrhythmia management, what key things do you think all arrhythmia patients should be entitled to receive?
Jayne: Prompt assessment and triage, access to ECG monitoring and other pertinent diagnostic tests, access to an arrhythmia specialist, access to an arrhythmia helpline which offers support and advice, access to appropriate treatments.

HRC: What does winning this award mean for you?
Jayne: I would recommend that anyone considering entering for the awards next year takes the time to do so as it is a fantastic experience. Winning the award is an amazing achievement and accolade for me individually and for our Trust. Although the award was presented to me I have to say that everything that is developed from a CRM/TLOC perspective at James Cook University Hospital is a result of collaborative team working and I would like to take this opportunity to mention my CRM team members and to thank them for their contribution to the development and on-going success of our patient services. So thanks to Nick Linker, Simon James, Andy Turley, Simon Taggart, Renata Shurrock, Angela Hall, Sue Hackett, John Campbell, Tony Rice, Angel Iglesias, Clair Wyatt, Lauren Robbins, Claire Wilson, Alison Galloway, Rebecca Richardson, Joanne Seymour, Christine Donnelly-Kirk and Lynne Bradley.

Allied Professional Award for Outstanding Contribution to Arrhythmia Management

Jean Maloney, Arrhythmia Nurse Specialist
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust

Prior to Jean working in this department there was very little information, advice and education given prior to or immediately post implantation of devices. Jean has turned this around by giving education, support and advice to all patients who are referred for devices. This is given in clinic, on the wards and over the phone and is given both pre and post device implantation. Jean  really gets to know the patients well and sees them in clinic and on the wards before implantation and then on the wards after and prior to discharge.

Jean has worked closely with the Inherited Cardiac Conditions Nurse Specialists, Heart Failure Nurse Specialists and the Cardiac Physiologists and has developed strong links with the Physiologist run ICD clinic. These links have led to the running of a multidisciplinary 6 monthly ICD support group for patients.

A Fast Track Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy clinic has been developed with the support of the consultant cardiologists. Patients can be referred to the service and seen within 2 weeks, where they are assessed for suitability for CRT implant. Counselling, advice, education and support are given alongside the assessment. The consultation is then discussed with the consultant and a joint decision made with regard CRT. A post CRT optimisation clinic is in the development stage.

In addition to all of this hard work Jean, along with a Nurse Specialist colleague has set up and run their first AF support group.

HRC: Describe your role – what is a typical day like for you?
Jean: My priority is to ensure that all our in patients at the Northern General having heart rhythm investigations and procedures receive adequate education and support throughout their hospital stay. If required, this will continue after discharge until such a time that the patient feels they no longer need help or information.
A typical day would involve me being at my desk by 07.20, having a cup of tea whilst checking my E mails and any telephone messages left overnight.
Around 07.45, I head out on to the wards to see the first list patients undergoing pacemaker or defibrillator implants before the procedure. From here, I visit 4 cardiology wards to see any overnight admissions and all new referrals who the nurses may be concerned about
At lunchtime, I meet with the consultants to discuss any concerns I have and the afternoon is either spent in clinic doing CBT, counselling or assessing suitability for heart devices. Around all of this, I have to find time for administration and my own personal development.
I leave the office around 4pm if possible as I very strongly believe that my home and family will always come first.

HRC: What aspects of your work do you find the most rewarding?
Jean: I love every aspect of my job and am incredibly lucky to have an ability to interact comfortably with most people. However, one aspect of my job which really does spur me on to keep coming back is telling our heart failure patients that they have been accepted onto our 4 week waiting list for a cardiac resynchronisation device. Not that long ago, medication was all we could offer to some patients with the prospect of nothing else if this failed, however, we now can go one step further by implanting ‘Special’ pacemaker or defibrillator which can help to improve quality of life.

HRC: How would you like to see the services you have been instrumental initiating, develop in the future?
Jean: There are many changes I would make if only we had the resources – more nurses would be a great help particularly to help with the psychosocial aspects of cardiac rhythm management. Also, I would really love to develop more educational programmes for the cardiology staff on the wards and am in the process of organising a regional development day for cardiology nurses which will be based at the Northern General in May 2012.

HRC: You attended HRC 2011, what were the highlights for you?
Jean: Attending HRC is a fantastic opportunity for me and one that I would never have done as a ward sister. Whilst I enjoy the variability in themes at HRC, my biggest highlight is the networking opportunity it provides. Being allowed to share my experience and knowledge whilst gaining from other often more experienced nurses is invaluable. I have made some good friends and useful contacts through HRC and am still very humbled at being asked to speak at patients' day.

HRC: What does winning this award mean for you?
Jean: Winning the award came as a complete surprise to me. In my opinion, I have been given this award for doing nothing other than what I get paid to do which is simply to see through other peoples’ eyes and just imagine if that were me. I consider myself extremely lucky to have a job which allows me the autonomy to act and make changes to continually improve our patient service. I am very grateful to Melloney Ferrar who nominated me for the award and I will treasure it forever.

Team of the Year Award

Dorset Cardiac & Stroke Network: Stroke Prevention & Public Awareness Subgroup and the Arrhythmia Subgroup

This team decided to commission a ‘Know Your Pulse’ campaign resource as a result of strong support from their cardiology and stroke clinicians, GPs, patients and carers. They felt that demonstrating to the public how to check their pulse and recognise abnormalities was an essential part of their overall strategy in reducing the number of strokes across the area. In collaboration with health and social care representatives, voluntary organisations and patients and carers, they developed a Life Channel clip; a short video explaining why knowing your pulse is important and demonstrating how a person can take their own pulse in just thirty seconds.

The campaign, which provides Department of Heath endorsed resources and statistics, has been aired on TV screens across the county where the Life Channel is available (approximately 90% of GP practices) and has been offered throughout the hospital networks. Shortly after the clip was developed, they were contacted by the Arrhythmia Alliance to ask if they could use the resource across the country. This is now an integrated part of the Arrhythmia Alliance website and is available for viewing or use by any interested parties. .

Locally, the campaigns continue to be aired in various forums. They are currently being shown in the local ‘Fiftyplus Forums’ and are planned to be shown in Age UK forums, local libraries and cinemas. The team believe that a consistent message to a wide audience will ensure that pulse checking becomes a routine part of a personal health check – like checking for breast lumps or checking moles. To support the campaign, the team undertook a series of work-based events promoting Know Your Pulse. These events provided those attending with one to one, face to face information about why checking and knowing their own pulse was important with a practical demonstration of how to physically check a pulse. Each person was then asked to check their pulse under supervision and record their rate and rhythm on the record card provided. Those attending were also asked to spread the word and practice on their family and friends!  During the events, 165 people were taught how to check their pulse and 5 were found to have irregular rhythms and were asked to visit their GP.

Click here to view the two minute film

We spoke to Sara Quickfall-Leonard about this project and winning the award.

HRC: Tell us what inspired you to make the 'Know Your Pulse' film
Sara: We made the Know Your Pulse film as a result of the emphasis we have placed on raising awareness of stroke and risk factors within our Network. This was discussed with our Cardiac and Stroke Network subgroups (which include patients and carers) and there was widespread support for the development of the video (we actually made two – one to highlight the signs and symptoms of TIA and the Know your Pulse campaign). We feel that people should be able to take responsibility for their own health and the video campaign allows people to learn how to take their own pulse and check for abnormalities.

HRC: What advice would you give to other teams to achieve such excellent practice in this field?
Sara: Collaborate! We had such a fantastic team of people working across primary care, secondary care, social care and voluntary organisations: cardiologists, stroke physicians, GPs, the AA, media company, patients, and carers – etc! Each brought their own ideas to the table and made sure that the video was promoted widely.

HRC: How has the film been used locally?
Sara: We have shown the video in a number of forums including: 90% of GP surgeries on The Life Channel (a health education channel – the video was played every 15 minutes into the surgery waiting rooms) and our local ‘FiftyPlus forums’ (there are 16 of these across the county). We are currently looking at how we can get the video played in local cinemas, libraries and leisure centres. We participate in local Know Your Pulse Events and can use the video as an adjunct to this. The video is also available for local hospitals to use in their waiting rooms.

HRC: What have been the key differences in your area to preventing stroke and improving the care and management of AF patients?
Sara: This piece of work is just a small part of the overall strategy for stroke prevention and management of AF. There are a number of work-streams we are currently working on and these have yet to be evaluated.