National Recognition for Royal Surrey's First Nurse Consultant | News

A consultant nurse from Royal Surrey’s paediatric team has been honoured with the Chief Nurs ing Officer for England’s Silver Award for her dedication and improvements to her profession.

Jo Macleod, Royal Surrey’s first Consultant Nurse, received the accolade for spearheading new initiatives to improve the health of newborn babies. The awards recognise the contribution, professionalism, skills and value of nurses and midwives around the country.

Senior colleagues nominated Jo after she successfully implemented the Kaiser Calculator, a method to calculate the probability of early onset sepsis in a newborn baby. She also introduced the ‘Bobble Hat Care Bundle’ to Royal Surrey - a scheme providing a bobble hat for every baby born at the hospital to help with keeping babies warm after birth. The result was a dramatic reduction in Special Care Baby Unit admissions for babies with low blood sugar levels.

The Deputy Chief Nurs ing Officer for England, Duncan Burton, visited Royal Surrey, to present Jo with her award. Jo said: “I was completely shocked and honoured to be presented with such a prestigious award, I was very proud but also feel my achievements reflect the wonderful teams I work with, who are so open to changing practice to provide exemplary care to our vulnerable babies.”

Qualifying in 1998 with a degree in Paediatric Nursing from the University of Surrey, Jo took up a post in 2005 at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust. She has remained at the Guildford Clinic ever since. Jo describes the Trust as, “fulfilling, with a lot of support and chances to develop professionally.” After becoming Royal Surrey’s first ever Nurse Consultant last autumn, one success has followed another.

She attributes support early on for her professional development as a key element for her commitment to working at the hospital. After being given the chance to train as an Advanced Neonatal Practitioner she has used the role to develop maternity and neonatal services. Creative problem solving and then embedding new ways of working across the whole service has kept Jo on board with the Trust.

She said: “I started out as an A&E nurse and got the bug for not knowing what each shift would bring, anyone could walk through the doors needing help. It was that sense of the unknown, quick thinking on my feet and immediacy that drew me towards being a neonatal nurse. I still find the delivery of a baby exciting and being called into help with emergency situations, making decisions and leading a team through those moments is very fulfilling for me.”

Despite the fact 2022 has only just got underway Jo is already delivering on patient improvement schemes, staff-training programmes and will be appearing as a guest speaker at a national conference in February.

Keen now to share the ethos of professional development with her colleagues, Jo is leading a new NHS initiative to support midwifery and paediatric teams to extend the time before a baby’s umbilical cord is clamped and cut. The ‘Optimal Cord Clamping’ project has found physiological benefits to newborns, including reducing the risk of brain haemorrhages.

Amy Stubbs , Royal Surrey’s Deputy Director of Midwifery and Divisional Head of Nursing, Women and Children’s, said: “I am tremendously proud to have Jo as a member of the senior nursing and midwifery team within the division. Jo is an inspirational leader and tenacious in progressing quality improvement projects, continually exploring ways in which we can better care. Jo is a role model for both nurses and midwives across the maternity and neonatal teams and a highly valued and effective member of the hospital team, demonstrating the scope that advanced practice can bring to the role of a nurse or midwife. I am delighted that Jo’s contribution to nursing practice has been recognised in this award.”