Shirley Hall selected for prestigious Older Person’s Fellowship

Picture: Shirley (centre) with resident Rosita Codrington and Well-being Advisor Kate Gokova from ExtraCare’s Pannel Croft Village in Newtown, Birmingham

ExtraCare’s Wellbeing and Community Manager Shirley Hall will demonstrate her commitment to innovation and development in care for older people through a quality improvement project.

We are delighted to announce that Shirley Hall, Wellbeing and Community Manager at The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, has been selected as one of only thirty participants in the prestigious Older Person’s Fellowship (OPF) at King’s College London.

Now in its third year, the OPF is a national programme, sponsored by Health Education England, which recruits high caliber, experienced nurses and allied health professionals (AHPs), who are passionate about service transformation in older people’s care. The programme is run by academics and clinical experts in older people’s health at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery.

Studying at the top Faculty for nursing in the UK, and one of the top 25 universities in the world (QS world rankings 2017), Fellowship participants are equipped with up to date clinical knowledge and research translation skills, to deliver age-attuned services for older people. As part of the programme, Fellows develop a quality improvement project that addresses a key local priority in older people’s care.

The quality improvement projects will be disseminated in 2018, through an annual conference at King’s College London, as well as via national and international conferences. Previous projects have had a positive impact on older people and their families, and two Fellows have received national awards in recognition for their work.

The ExtraCare Charitable Trust has been a registered charity since 1988, and its well-being service is already improving the lives of thousands of residents. In 2016 the Charity won three national awards linked to its village developments, well-being and care programmes and its innovative approach to providing older people’s services.

A research project undertaken by the Charity with Aston University found that ExtraCare residents experienced a significant reduction in the length of unplanned hospital stays and routine GP appointments fell by 46 per cent after a year. Find out more!

Angela Harding, Executive Director Operations at The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, said: “We are very proud that Shirley has been selected for this important Fellowship at King’s College London. It’s a great achievement, and an inspiring example of developing clinical and leadership skills.”

Dr Corina Naughton, the Fellowship’s academic lead at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, said, “The Older Person’s Fellowship recognises the enormous potential and capability of nurses and AHPs to deliver contemporary models of care for older people. The Fellowship gives frontline practitioners the confidence and skills to lead change, better support older people and their families, and to influence wider strategic planning for older adult services in their organisations.”

For further information, please visit the Older Person’s Fellowship website:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/nursing/Older-Persons-Fellowship/Index.aspx

Videos of previous Older Person’s Fellowship quality improvement projects can be found here:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/nursing/Older-Persons-Fellowship/Older-Persons-Fellowship-Conference.aspx