OUH staff who support NHS research honoured
28/09/2017
This article is more than six years old.
Research nurses who have helped to run research trials in the NHS were among several OUH staff to be honoured at an awards ceremony in Oxford in September 2017.
Among those recognised by the NIHR Clinical Research Network Thames Valley and South Midlands (LCRN), were Trust Senior Diabetes Research Nurse Nicky McRobert and Infection Control Research Nurse Musa Kamfose.
In 2016/17, the LCRN supported more than 500 studies in Oxfordshire's NHS, in specialties including cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
A total of 29 awards were handed out on Tuesday 26 September 2017 to NHS staff from Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes at the ceremony at St Hilda's College, Oxford.
Staff were nominated by colleagues and winners were chosen by a judging panel at the LCRN, which provides staff to ensure patients are recruited to take part in research.
Flexible
Nicky McRobert, who works in the Diabetes Research Nurse Team at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) at the Churchill Hospital, was one of three winners of the Inspirational Team Leader Award.
She said: "As the senior diabetes research nurse for the local clinical research network in Oxford, I manage a dedicated team of research nurses and practitioners.
"They are an enthusiastic team who work really hard in order to meet the needs of study participants whilst at the same time adhering to quite stringent study requirements - it's sometimes quite tricky to balance this, hence the need for flexible working within the team.
"In addition to supporting the team, my role includes being involved in the set-up of clinical trials, recruiting participants and gathering high quality data during the trial.
"Clinical trials are really important to ensure that we continue to develop new treatments for diabetes, but we would be unable to do this without the commitment of our trial participants who are willing to give their own time, often with no personal gain in order to help improve the lives of future generations.
"Working with a fantastic team and inspiring patients help to make this such an exciting and enjoyable job."
She was nominated by Christopher Hille, a Research Delivery Manager at the LCRN, who said: "Nicky is an outstanding research advocate and goes the extra mile to promote the research agenda. She leads by example, always works hard, approaches all obstacles in a calm and thoughtful way.
"No matter how difficult a situation Nicky may be faced with, she can always be relied on to give her best until an objective is achieved or she has explored every avenue and exhausted all options. Nicky inspires and motivates her team with her own enthusiasm and dedication."
Determination
Musa Kamfose coordinates and runs research in the infection control team at the John Radcliffe Hospital. He received one of the four Star Research Nurse awards.
He said: "I feel research is part of a professional responsibility to contribute to clinical practice.
"It is one way of transforming the services that we provide in the NHS and if one can be part of promoting or assisting high quality research to benefit the public, then it’s worth putting your whole effort in it."
He was nominated by Matthew Scarborough, Consultant in Clinical Infection at the Trust, who praised his work, which includes working to recruit acutely ill patients to studies around issues such as antibiotic resistance.
"Musa is an essential member of a relatively new research team in clinical infection. He moved from a post in anaesthetic nursing and very rapidly learned the skills he required for life in clinical research.
"He does so with admirable determination and flexibility and never complains about workload, coming in out of hours, or repeated journeys to Banbury's Horton General Hospital and other sites in the Trust."
Prof Belinda Lennox, clinical director of the LCRN, said: "The NIHR CRN Thames Valley and South Midlands has had its most successful year to date - recruiting more participants to clinical research studies than ever before.
"This award ceremony is our chance to celebrate some of the people in our region that have made this possible, from members of the public, to NHS staff and whole teams. They have each made an outstanding contribution to research in the NHS, and we want to say thank you."
Participating in health research helps develop new treatments, improve the NHS and save lives.
The NHS supports research through asking patients if they wish to take part in trials and healthy people if they also wish to take part so results can be compared to those with a medical condition.
Patients are also encouraged to ask their doctor about research opportunities and view trials seeking volunteers at the UK Clinical Trials Gateway at www.ukctg.nihr.ac.uk
Other OUH winners included:
- All-round High Performing Team - Hepatology Research Team
- All-round High Performing Team - Eye Research Group
- Best Green Shoots Research - Sam Clark, Richard Siviter, Dr Robert Hallifax
- Exceptional Performance in Recruitment to a Non-Commercial Study - Sophie Marlowe
- Inspirational Team Leader - Melanie Westmoreland
- Star Research Nurse - Christopher Deane
- Patient's Hero - Dr Garry Tan