British Geriatrics Society Specialist Nurse and Senior Practitioner Group
Notes of Annual General Meeting
th
June 7 2013. Marjory Warren House, St John’s Square, London
ITEM
Present
DISCUSSION
ACTION
Jane Buswell - Independent Consultant Nurse, Bristol (independent practitioner, best interest assessment, capacity,
dementia teaching)
Cliff Kilgore - Advanced Practitioner Intermediate Care Dorset Health Care (avoidance of admission service
Bournemouth. Medical review of patients. Although ‘nurse’ not in role title, works as a nurse. Teaching for Dorset
Healthcare. Developing Band 3 staff).
Clare Abley - Consultant Nurse Vulnerable Older Adults, Newcastle on Tyne (working for hospital trust including
community. Remit dignity and safeguarding, improving care for vulnerable older people. Interest in pursuing postdoc research into pathways for people with dementia and involving their views. Working on application for monies).
Jo Clark – Clinical Services Development Lead, Dorset Healthcare
Dawne Garrett – Independent Nurse Consultant, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire (long-term care, University of Hull PhD.
Florence Nightingale scholarship. Second round two weeks. Also work with North Lincolnshire CCG looking at
pulling together management plans for long-term conditions with and for GPs. Sits on long-term conditions board)
Frances (Fran) Grant – Consultant Nurse Older Adults Derby (currently undergoing reconfiguration of divisions and
groups. RAID. Created complex discharge group. Rapid access clinics. Currently a curate, to be priested in three
weeks – Rev Fran Grant).
Nicky Hayes - Consultant Nurse Older People, King’s College Hospital London (Care home work, admission
avoidance, advance care planning, controlled evaluation, independent panel IRP)
Hazel Heath - Independent Nurse Consultant, Chair RCN Older People's Forum and working with the Journal of
Dementia Care
Soline Jerram - Lead nurse - Director for Clinical Quality and Primary Care Brighton and Hove Clinical
Commissioning Group, primary care development, quality monitoring, continuing healthcare management. Lead
Executive Director for Safeguarding Children and Adults, Caldecott).
Lynne Phair - Independent Consultant Nurse (specialising in neglect, coroners, magistrate, family cases, court of
protection, best interest assessment, developing the Sit and See tool)
Barbara Schofield – Consultant Nurse, Calderdale and Huddersfield Trust West Yorkshire (was focused towards
dementia care but introducing new integrated care service which will include a frailty unit and focus on dementia
care. PhD looking at compassion)
Deborah Sturdy – Independent Nurse Consultant (part time with start up company looking at developing radical new
approach to care for people with dementia in a 20 acre complex, currently going into pre-planning. This is
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challenging the concept of how care is provided. Ethnographic research to build the evidence base)
Rachel Thompson - RCN Dementia Project Lead until March 2014 (supporting people implementing initiatives to
improve practice. Evaluating the impact of interventions. Picking up some of the Older People’s Adviser work. Also
consultancy works with Dementia UK, Admiral Nurse. Healthcare lecturer for dementia, developing curriculum to be
launched in the autumn. Music for Life Project – musicians into care homes, work with staff on therapeutic music)
Apologies
Chris Beech – Consultant Nurse, Stirling Community Hospital
Helen Lyndon – Consultant Nurse LTC and Older People, Peninsula Community Health, Bodmin
Aileen Fraser - Clinical Director NHS Bristol Community Health
Caroline Nicholson - Research Fellow, Kings College London
Lisa Berry – Editor Nursing Older People
Debbie Cheeseman - Consultant Nurse - Exeter
Jo Jennings - Falls Prevention Co-ordinator
Wendy Barker
Beverly Hallpike- Consultant Nurse Dementia Care/ non-medical prescribing lead, Norwich
Jane Greene - Consultant Nurse Northern Ireland
Julie Willoughby - Consultant Nurse Dementia Services, Wolverhampton
Gwyn Grout - Independent Consultant Nurse
Sam Boobier – Independent Consultant Nurse
Minutes
Apologies were noted. Minutes agreed.
Minor amendments – Barbara Schofield had sent apologies.
Matters
arising
and
update
Committee meeting feedback
BGS Quality Committee Chaired by Gill Turner. Chris Beech is nurse representative. Was asked to stay on the
committee and is seeking to clarify who is on the group and for what purpose. Ian Philp has joined this group. RCP
is to be a critical friend for peer reviews in organisations.
BGS Policy, public consultations and communications committee. Soline is nurse representative and has been
asked to stay on the committee. (Zoë Wryko steps down this year).
Meeting is next week and Soline will feed back to the group.
This committee is about commenting on public policy. This group developed guidelines and wrote documents. We
want to ensure that the various statements made are linked and that a process is built for releasing statements.
Soline to
send
Frailsafe
tool, list of
organisati
ons
trialling it
and
feedback
from
meeting to
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group.
BGS Academic research committee – Clare Abley is nurse representative and is happy to remain. What is
happening with this in the new structure?
DH Committee – Vicky Leah is our representative.
As part of the Dementia Challenge Care Compacts work, Deborah has a meeting with Jeremy Hunt.
The BGS now has a new SIG – the Community Medicine Group. Deborah is happy to be on this.
The Frail safe Tool is attracting increasing interest. This is a brief template, two sides, aimed at practitioners who
are not geriatricians, e.g. doctors, to ensure that frail older people have a daily check, e.g. for pressure ulcers. They
are trying to encourage doctors to take some responsibility in this and to raise standards of care. It should be on the
BGS website but Soline will forward to the group.
Zoë has developed this with a team and it is being widely discussed. It has been trialled by about five organisations.
They want practitioners to use it and informally feed back.
Sub-cutaneous fluids survey now complete. The group decided that, while there is a gap in practice, there is a great
deal of information available on this topic, so we will not progress the work further.
Jane has continued discussions about the website with Recia.
Media officer Tom Thorpe has left. Iona Jane Harris holding the fort
David Oliver – president elect working in parallel with Paul Knight
Health Select Committee discussions yesterday. Useful for members to look at this.
Business
of Annual
General
Meeting
Election of vice chair: Cliff Kilgore nominated by Dawne Garrett. Voted in.
Election of Secretary: Hazel Heath nominated by Jane Buswell. Voted in
Annual Report 2012-2013
The group’s three priorities were:
1. Raising our profile and activity within BGS
2. Focus on care homes
3. Clinical commissioning
Jane to
send
updated
email list
to Hazel
to compile
database.
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1.
Raising our profile and activity within BGS:
Jane Buswell and Jane Green attended the BGS Spring Meeting in Belfast. Were on the scientific committee and
judged posters. We were originally given only the nursing posters to judge but this was questioned. We discussed
why nursing is allocated as a separate category and argued that SIG should be judging posters from all sources.
We need to maintain our presence at BGS meetings.
The BGS had a stand and inserts in conference packs at the RCN Older People’s Forum national conference in
Birmingham in March 2013 (emphasising that the BGS nurses group is distinct to RCN groups, not an alternative).
Jane also sent a flier on our group to Rachel Thompson to go onto the RCN website.
Jane undertook BGS media training. Very useful.
The report on our sub-cutaneous fluids survey compiled by Fraser Underwood went to the BGS Policy Group but no
further action necessary.
We contributed to responses to the Cavendish Report and the Francis Report. These responses also went to the
RCN.
BGS blog and web page started.
Articles in Nursing Standard and Nursing Older People. Expert practice pages in Nursing Older People maintained.
Liaising with BGS Press Office on articles submitted by Paul Knight.
BGS and RCP joint conference on urgent care – offered a free place to an RCN person – information shared with
JP Nolan at RCN. Rachel Thompson to attend.
Jane attended Tele Healthcare Advisory Meeting (Instead of Zoë Wryko)
Jane presented sessions on restraint at the RCN Forum conference in March and also at RCN Congress in April.
Well received.
Jane to
talk to
Recia
Atkins and
Carole
Nicholson
to compile
skills
diagram.
Actions for 2013-2014. We need to plan to:
 continue influencing
 flag up the skills in the group
 Attend the BGS meeting in Harrogate November 20th and ensure we are involved. At this meeting ensure that
we signpost our work on sub-cutaneous fluids and direct members to this. Nicky plans to attend.
 Continue linking with the work of the RCN and the RCN Older People’s Forum. Tanis Hand at RCN is looking at
HCA competencies. Cliff and Soline to contribute.
2.
Focus on care homes:
Actions for 2013-2014. We need to plan to:
Progress the idea of a webinar. The BGS is tentatively supportive.
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3.
Clinical commissioning
Nicky emphasised that experienced nurses have a potentially massive role in commissioning and that this is an area
that we can influence. A good example is Rachel’s work on specialist nurses.
Actions for 2013-2014. We plan to contribute through:
 Westminster Health Forum is looking for a speaker for their November conference. Soline could offer to speak?
 Soline will bring this up at the Policy Committee.
 Nicky Hayes offered to compile a concise briefing paper and guidance on commissioning.
Email distribution list needs updating. Jane has started this work. Jane to send most up-to-date list to Hazel who will
build database.
JB
Dates of next years meetings to be confirmed. Agreed that we continue to meet on a Friday.
NOP Ask
the
Experts
page
Barbara and Rachel wrote on sleep
Dawn wrote on sub-cutaneous fluids
Jane will liaise with Lisa Berry to ensure both are working to the same list.( done)
JB
Research
on sexual
intimacy
Dawne presented her research proposal on The experience of sexual intimacy of people aged 75-85 in the context
of partnership relationships in the UK.
Partnerships are self-defined. Method = intuitive inquiry. The aim is to develop a toolkit.
Dawne asked the group for suggestions on how to reach people who might be willing to contribute to her
approximately 20 interviews and also contribute data by way of writings, reflections, poetry which will help to
develop a definition of sexual intimacy. Useful ideas were offered. Any further ideas to Dawne please.
Group to
send
further
ideas to
Dawne.
Band 3
Cliff and Jo presented their work Developing a Tool Kit of Skills for Band 3 Support Workers. They highlighted that:
developme  As an organisation they were presented with the opportunity to develop the workforce to meet the needs of
nt
people living with long-term conditions.
programm  Nationally there was a drive to develop and enhance the role of the Health Care Support Worker and Health
e
Care Assistants.
They wanted to:
 Improve patient experience
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


Decrease ‘foot fall’ in patients’ homes
Give RNs time to assess and review
Improve skills in their teams.
Sit and
See Tool
Lynne presented an overview of her Sit and See Tool which assesses from the perspective of the patient or visitor,
whether care being delivered is compassionate, passive/businesslike or poor. Lynne is now copyright holder for the
tool and is currently working with nine trusts to implement it in practice. Worcester University is testing the tool. The
tool is also being used as a CQINN, matrons are using it to monitor wards, community matrons are using it in
induction training, trusts are using it for peer review and student nurses are being taught to use it. Observers being
trained include lay people.
Any other
business
RCN forum update
Hazel reported that the RCN Older People’s Adviser post remained vacant. Interviews were held on May 31st but no
appointment made. The Nursing Department is undergoing reorganisation and is currently ‘rethinking the role’.
The forum’s project This is Nursing in Care Homes is progressing. Views and volunteers were gathered from
delegates at the March Conference and April Congress Event. A workshop was held on May 21st attended by care
home managers, RNS, RMNs, specialist nurses working into care homes, dementia specialists, senior carers and
care assistants of various grades and an inspection and registration officer. Members came from around the UK.
The findings from the workshop could offer a useful evidence base to a range of RCN projects and Hazel is now
awaiting RCN guidance on which products the forum should produce within the RCN’s overall programme of work.
Ongoing development on the congress restraint resolution is progressing led by Iain Hulatt (RCN Mental Health
Adviser) and Annie Norman (Adviser for the Forensic Nursing Forum). The OP forum has been invited to contribute
and Hazel is awaiting further guidance.
Annual Forum conference has been booked for March 25th 2014 at the Holiday Inn in Birmingham.
Hazel awaiting contributions for the next forum newsletter.
Journal of Dementia Care
Hazel is working with Sue Benson developing the research section of the journal and shifting the focus to Evidence
for Practice. Contributions of reviews of evidence are invited. These are about 3000 words, 20 references, which
evaluate the evidence on an aspect of practice or care for people who have a dementia. Articles submitted so far
focus on pain and family dining and possibly one on continence.
RCN dementia project update
Rachel reported on a range of developments in dementia care.
The Chief Admiral Nurse post has been advertised. RMN is a requirement.
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The RCP Competency Framework for Dementia has been published.
The Specialist Nurse document is now on the RCN website. Dementia: Scope of the role of the Dementia Nurse
Specialist in Acute Care.
Scotland Dementia Strategy 2013-2016 was launched this weekend. Fairly low key.
Post Registration specialist courses in older people’s nursing (Francis Report Recommendation) Clare Abley have
asked their Head of Education to look at this.
Lynne advised the group that a BBC Panorama programme to which she had contributed would be broadcast on
17th June. This will show positive and negative aspects of care.
Next
meetings
Next Meeting on September 6th 2013
JB has been in contact with Deputy Chief Nurse Dr David Foster – to attend September meeting.
We could invite Mike Richards, who has just been appointed as Inspector of Hospitals, to a future meeting?
CQC contract with AgeUK. 15 step challenge. Place assessments. Other priority is A&E, the preventative agenda,
care homes and inappropriate hospital admissions.
John Young is now on the NHS Commissioning Board. We could invite him to a future meeting?
Dates for forthcoming meetings: 6 September 2013 6 December 2013, 7 March 2014, June 6 2014 (AGM)
Jane Buswell Chair
Hazel Heath, Group Secretary
June 2013
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