Kate Moran – WT Nightingales

Western Trust Nightingales Challenge 2020 Staff Profile: Kate Moran, Tissue Viability Nurse

Tell us about yourself and your work (eg family, job, length of time in post).

My name is Kate Moran, Tissue Viability Nurse covering the Western Trust area across Acute and Primary Care services. I qualified as a Nurse in 2012. I am in my current role as Tissue Viability Nurse since May 2019. I previously worked in ICU, Tracheostomy Team and Medical Wards. I am married to Gary and we have one little girl called Molly (4).

Why did you choose this job?

I have always had a love of caring for wounds my career. I was always the nurse others came to for advice on wound dressings. I love learning about new wound products, carrying out case studies, research, trials and audits. I always knew I wanted to progress my nursing career so Tissue Viability was my dream job.

I know it has been a particularly challenging couple of months for all health care workers due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Can you explain what has changed in your role? What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?

We have had to more away from face to face to virtually assessing patients due to Covid-19. It was challenging at the beginning reshaping our service but seeing the positive feedback from patient and colleagues makes it all worth it.

This is the Year of the Nurse/Midwife and although many plans to celebrate has been significantly curtailed due to COVID – what makes you proud to be playing your role as a nurse/midwife?

This year due to Covid-19 our profession has been part of the front line in tackling the pandemic. I have used my skills on both the front and back lines in my role to ensure patients receive optimum care.

All health care staff have risen to the challenges faced by this global pandemic. Many traditional services have had to be stopped or done in a different way either via telephone or virtual clinics. Have you experienced this in your role and how do you think this has or hasn’t worked?

We have had to change our service completely during Covid-19. Our outpatient Complex Wound Clinic was stopped. Together with our Lead TVN we re-shaped the service and passed a policy with Information Governance to allow us to virtually assess wounds via consented wound pictures. This change has worked really well and we have gotten great feedback from both patients and staff. We can give more timely personalised care plans and triage the really complex wounds that need a face to face assessment. We will definitely be holding onto these gains post Covid-19.

Looking forward to the next year or so – what would you like to see achieved in Health and Social Care?

I hope our service and others can hold onto the good things that came out of the pandemic, let go of the aspects that weren’t working and move forward to create a better service for its users and staff.

How does your work help in the overall delivery of Health and Social Care services?

As we cover both acute and primary care our service is invaluable for keeping chronic and complex wounds from needing hospital admissions and helping support discharge to primary care. I believe Tissue Viability is an invaluable link to both sectors. Furthermore, through staff support, education, audits and research we help provide quality evidence based patient care.

Please also include any particular personal messages of how you, your colleagues have supported each other during this global health crisis.

Tissue Viability is a very small team but we work very well together with our Lead Tissue Viability Nurse. I am particularly proud of how we reshaped our service so quickly and efficiently during a global pandemic.

What advice would you give to the public on how they can help the NHS deal with the ongoing pandemic in the months ahead?

Adhere to government advice, look after your physical and mental health and always be kind.

Kate is one of 5 participants who are taking part in the Nightingale Challenge Global Leadership Development Programme . The Nightingale Challenge was launched by Nursing Now – a programme of the Burdett Trust for Nursing, to improve health globally in collaboration with the International Council of Nursing and the World Health Organisation. The Nightingale Challenge asks for every health employer to provide leadership and development training for a group of young nurses and midwives during 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.