Heartbeat: welearn – announcing the winners of our first QIHD poster competition
December 27, 2018
Earlier this month we crowned the winners and runners up of our first ever welearn poster competition. After almost 500 votes and a director-level judging panel, the shortlist of 13 was whittled down to just four.
The 13 shortlisted finalists had an opportunity to showcase their posters to a room full of their peers and judges and share their good practice, quality initiatives, innovation, research and partnership work, highlighting how it had resulted in an improvement for patients, relatives and colleagues.
Under the watchful eyes of the judges; Acting Director of Finance, Dinah McLannahan; Director of Innovation and Partnerships, Dave Baker; Professor Elizabeth Hughes and Non-Executive Director, Professor Kate Thomas, the 13 finalists were given the opportunity to present their idea via a one minute video.
The first winner was for the poster which received the most votes from colleagues and was presented to ‘Pets are Woof-ing in Stroke’, by Laura Wheeler, Sachin Vasishta and Lorena Chua.
Dinah announced this award and said: “This is a simple concept that is easily transferred and can make a huge experience and quality difference to patients. It’s a great idea showing real benefit and the team has produced an entertaining poster.”
The two highly commended posters were announced as ‘Improving Perioperative Outcomes for Patients Undergoing Elective Lower Gastrointestinal Surgery’ by Ahmed Gilani and Subash Sivasubramaniam and ‘A Child Friendly Phlebotomy Service’ by Ajit Kaur Sagoo.
Both projects were highlighted for their clear links to our organisation values and vision, great evidence and succinct and powerful messaging. All three received £500.
The winner of the £5,000 prize was announced by Chief Executive, Toby Lewis and went to ‘Think Drink – Improving Pre-Operative Patient Experience’, by Ahmed Gilani, Christopher Horner and Santhana Kannan.
Toby said: “This is a clear and eye catching poster, showing good results and challenges long held beliefs that patients should be nil-by-mouth before surgery.
“It is a great project based on a simple but longstanding issue and focuses on patient experience outcomes.”
Closing the ceremony, Kam Dhami, Director of Governance said: “I’m delighted to say that we had an amazing turn out for our first welearn poster competition with everyone thoroughly embracing the idea of sharing good practice and innovation.
“Congratulations go to this year’s winners and finalists but also to all of the other teams who developed posters and shared their ideas.
“The posters will now be on display at Sandwell Education Centre and Hallam Restaurant after which they’ll tour the organisation.
“Enjoy viewing the posters and finding out about the great quality improvement initiatives taking place throughout SWBH, and encourage your colleagues to do so too.
“Following this year’s success, I am pleased to announce that we will run the poster competition again next year so starting thinking about your entries for 2019.”