Nurse at Luton and Dunstable hospital wins award for improving prostate cancer care

A nurse at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital has won a Nursing Times award for improving how prostate cancer patients are looked after.

Jenny Arnold, a prostate cancer nurse specialist, spent two years collecting data on patients with prostate cancer who were being monitored on active surveillance, and found that many were not being followed up correctly.

From the data, she worked with Mr Barrass, an urology cancer lead consultant, to design a new evidence-based protocol and introduced a follow-up clinic. The new model makes sure that patients are followed up in a more stratified way and are seen by either Jenny, Mr Barrass or Mr Punshakran, an oncology consultant.

Through this new protocol, several men have been upgraded and gone on to have radical treatment, which Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says should improve their outcome.

After winning the award, Jenny said: “I am so proud of how wonderful and supportive my team have been and this award shows that with a great team, change can happen. Change in services can have its challenges, but putting the patient first and having a vision is very important.”

She continued: “I hope by winning this award it will inspire other nurses that if they see something that needs to change in patient care, they shouldn’t be scared to speak up and push for what they believe in.”

At the ceremony in London’s Park Lane on Wednesday of last week, the judges were “blown away with the tenacity and resilience that accompanied the nursing leadership of Jenny who has transformed the follow-up prostate cancer pathway”.

Liz Lees, chief nurse at Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust, said: “This is an outstanding nursing-led initiative to improve the prostate cancer pathway and I am so proud of the urology and cancer teams who have worked hard to introduce this.”

She added: “It will have a hugely positive impact on patient outcomes and we have already received great feedback that patients feel well supported and are able to better understand their diagnosis.”