We are delighted that our very own Claire Cadwallader, Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, has been awarded the title of Oncology Nurse of the Year at this year’s British Journal of Nursing (BJN) Awards. The 2024 BJN Awards is dedicated to recognising hard work and unwavering commitment, and acknowledging the significant impact nominees have made on the lives of patients.
Aside from delivering excellent patient care herself in her clinical role, Claire has led the trust-wide project over the last 5 years to embed the AMBER care bundle in our organisation.
The AMBER care bundle aims to improve the quality of care for inpatients whose potential for recovery is uncertain and may be approaching the end of their lives despite treatment. It gives staff the opportunity to involve patients and their families in discussions about treatment and future care. Thanks to this, we now achieve patients’ preferred place of care 80% of the time from these earlier conversations compared with 8% three years ago.
Claire’s kindness and dedication doesn’t stop at the patients and staff of Clatterbridge, as she offers peer support to other centres. Clinical Nurse Specialists leading advance care planning and AMBER in other organisations frequently call upon her for advice, which she gives willingly and often goes above and beyond to support other hospitals in implementing these changes. She also delivers pastoral support to those who find the emotional burden of these conversations to be challenging.
Claire was nominated by Dr Dan Monnery, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. He said: "The whole team are delighted to congratulate Claire in this fantastic achievement.
"Claire has worked tirelessly over the last four years to develop the AMBER and Advance Care Planning processes at Clatterbridge. She has used her warm and supportive approach to encourage others to adopt and embed new processes which have revolutionised the way we as an organisation communicate with patients and their families about their priorities and goals.
"Claire has worked so hard to develop herself as a practitioner alongside her project work, having completed her prescribing course and taking on five clinics per week to grow Enhanced Supportive Care here at Clatterbridge. She is truly an inspiration to us."
