Staff recognised at CRN Awards

Staff across our partnership have received awards at the first ever Staff Recognition Awards at the Clinical Research Network (CRN) South London Annual Research Meeting.

The Anaesthetics, Critical Care, Emergency and Trauma (ACET) team at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London both received awards at the meeting.

Themed, ‘Enhancing Research Delivery’, the meeting welcomed an array of speakers, presentations and the very first staff recognition award ceremony. The ‘Rising Star’ award for the best or most improved research nurse/practitioner or clinical research support worker, was awarded to Sian Birch, Research Nurse, ACET team at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

On winning the award Sian said:

I am absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the ‘Rising Star’ award by the CRN South London. It’s a privilege to be recognised for the work I’ve done to support an increase in patient recruitment into anaesthetics trials and influencing the expansion and develop of the ACET research team.  I believe that good research delivery can have a positive impact on the patient experience, and so working on initiatives to promote this and build supportive research delivery networks has been fantastic.

This wasn’t the only win for the team. The award for ‘Significant contribution to activities supporting research’ was also presented to the ACET team. This award recognises a team who have significantly developed their portfolio and contributed to research delivery through supporting activities.

On behalf of the team, Clair Harris, ACET Clinical Research Matron, said:

We are delighted and very proud to be recognised with this award. We’re also thankful to the researchers, investigators, clinical staff and senior teams in our specialties that support us to offer the opportunity to our patients to take part in research and nurture a supportive network across the Trust and region.

The Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London received the ‘Innovation’ award for their work in developing a new online forum to enhance communication between their Patient and Pubic Involvement members and researchers.

Lisa Brighton, Research Assistant at the Cicely Saunders Institute, commented:

Our team of researchers, clinicians and service user representatives are really proud of our online forum for patient and public involvement in palliative care and rehabilitation research, and it’s fantastic to receive this recognition from the local CRN. We’re really grateful for all the support we’ve received from our colleagues and local organisations in creating this new platform, and we look forward to developing it further.

[Image: Katie Wicombe and Lisa Brighton, Cicely Saunders Institute]