Describe your role at Salts Healthcare?
I have been a stoma care nurse for over 25 years, previously working in one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the UK before joining Salts in 2012.
Salts identified the need for a brand new and innovative role - a clinician bridging the gap between patients and product design engineers. Providing the patients with a clinician voice that helped to guide huge product innovations at Salts Healthcare. It was a groundbreaking role.
I am now Global Clinical Education Lead at the Salts Academy. I love the role, transferring all my knowledge and experience to the stoma care nurses of the future to simply ensure patients are cared for to the highest possible standards.
Personally, what does it mean to you to work at Salts Healthcare?
I feel part of a family. I have known the Salts Brothers very well throughout my career and was flattered to be asked to join the company as I share their vision. Salts are totally patient orientated. Everything we do, whether it is educating nurses or developing products, is centred around what is best for the patient, and the company has never lost sight of that. That’s why it’s been around for over 300 years.
How does Salts Healthcare help to make patients’ lives easier?
We are always listening and looking for ways to improve the quality of life for patients. Whether this be new product design, patient resources and services or nurse education. I know it’s easy to say this but it’s true. For example, Salts were the first to create a Nursing Academy in 2013, in association with a university. These pioneering developments are actions simply borne out of the desire to do the right thing.
How does Salts Healthcare work to support and educate stoma care nurses and other healthcare professionals to improve their knowledge and skills?
Salts Academy works with two universities to offer validated and accredited courses: one adult and one paediatric at degree and master’s level.
The adult stoma care course is extremely popular, and to date has educated 225 UK stoma care nurses, equating to approximately a quarter of specialist nurses working within the sphere of stoma care.
The Salts Academy offers a comprehensive range of study days in a specially designed, ranging from siting workshops to offering patient sex advice. We recognised the need for basic stoma care training but that not everyone can travel to us. So, we developed a roadshow that has educated hundreds of ward-based staff nurses and carers in the basics of stoma care, allowing them to provide good quality care to their patients and we look forward to expanding on this in the coming years.
A key challenge over recent years due to Covid has been communication and access to face-to-face education plus greater pressures within the NHS.
We all know that education is vital for nurses in providing good quality care to patients, so the Salts Academy saw this as an opportunity to innovate to offer education in more accessible ways.
Working collaboratively with De Montfort University, we offered our stoma course online during 2020/2021, and to reach even more nurses we launched the Salts Discover series. Not only that, but we have also created a dedicated section on our website just for healthcare professionals. Ever thinking ahead, our next project is a brand-new series of podcasts for stoma care nurses.
Why do you think Salts Healthcare’s educational offering is important to nurses, and ultimately the patient?
I am really passionate about this, it is so important that the patients are offered high quality, evidence-based care, and for me education is the key to that.
Now that M Care has become a part of the Salts Healthcare family, what plans/expectations do you have on future educational offering to stoma care nurses and healthcare professionals in Sweden?
The Salts Academy has proven to deliver exceptional education for stoma care and colorectal specialties within the UK.
We have exciting plans to extend the Salts Academy and its offerings to our Swedish family; a journey which I am looking forward to embarking on with the MCare team!
What are your future expectations when it comes to patient support in Sweden?
By discussing and collaborating we will understand the on-going needs of health care professionals across Sweden. My simple, single desire is to provide a personalised, high-quality education to create the best care outcomes for people living with a stoma in Sweden.
And finally, I urge you to contact the MCare team to discuss your thoughts about education and how we can support you and your team.
