Manx Care’s Head of Safeguarding for Children and Adults has won a prestigious Queen’s Nurse Award, and will collect her accolade at a ceremony in London on Monday (28 November 2022).
Awarded by The Queen’s Nursing Institute, Queen’s Nurse accolades are given to nursing colleagues who promote the highest standards of patient care in the community.
Since joining Manx Care in her important and newly created role in 2021, Terri Banks has invested a significant amount of time educating and developing her small safeguarding team so that they can provide support to individuals who are at risk, educating the broader health and social care workforce across the Island, and working to develop integrated safeguarding practices across multiple agencies including Isle of Man Constabulary and Government departments.
Terri’s significant contributions have facilitated changes and brought about new approaches to understanding risks and vulnerabilities for children and adults living on the Island. She consistently advocates for children and vulnerable adults in need of protection, and is a valued member of the Isle of Man Safeguarding Board. She has received exemplary feedback for her work to date.
A registered Nurse, then a Midwife, Terri brings a wealth of experience to the Isle of Man in the field of safeguarding, having worked as a Nurse in a safeguarding role since 2007 in the UK NHS, both in the community and in the acute (hospital) setting.
Manx Care is delighted that Terri’s resilience, along with her ability to skilfully challenge professional practice and policy at all levels across the Island’s multi-agency system, has been recognised.
Terri Banks commented:
'I’m really shocked but incredibly proud to have been honoured with a Queen’s Nurse Award. I truly feel like I’m ‘just doing my job’ but it’s really pleasing that the work I’m undertaking on the Island is having an impact across multiple agencies, and most importantly for the children and adults who require safeguarding support. This is the first time a face to face ceremony has taken place since before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and I’m honoured to be representing Manx Care at the event.'
Three further Manx Care Nurses – Anna Quirk and Bree Tomlinson (joint Leads of the District Nursing Team), and Lynn Hampton (School Health Advisor) – were honoured with Queen’s Nurse Awards in 2021.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bree and Anna led by example, assisting with community swabbing at weekends and on days off until a team had been established. When the 111 Call Centre was developed, they helped as clinicians, providing advice and support, and referring patients for testing. This was outside of their normal scope of practice but they embraced the challenge and supported others to do the same.
Together Bree and Anna co-ordinated the District Nursing Service response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a very challenging time requiring quick decision making and flexibility. They created and implemented a safe screening tool for staff and patients. This allowed the service to continue to function and deliver care to some of the most vulnerable in the community with the support of their committed team.
Part of their role also involved the planning and initial implementation of the housebound vaccination programme. They worked together with a small team of colleagues to adapt the process of vaccinating in a hub to vaccinating in a community setting to ensure safe delivery. Both were honoured to deliver some of the first COVID-19 vaccines to housebound patients on the Island.
Together, they also pioneered out-of-hours intravenous (IV) antibiotic treatment for a patient so they could leave the UK hospital they were being treated at, come back to the Island and stay at home for their care. This required high levels of commitment, coordination, organisation and planning to ensure that the care delivered was safe and effective. A regime of this complexity had not been undertaken in community before, and was an example of exceptional team work.
Anna and Bree are passionate about developing the District Nursing Service and have shown great support for the Island’s Specialist Practice students, developing Nurses to become qualified District Nurses and future leaders within the service.
Lynn Hampton was recognised for the role she played training and supporting School Nurses to enhance their skills, and in driving policy change to support the future development of the School Nursing service. Lynn is responsible for working with multiple agencies including Social Care, Education, other health-related services and voluntary organisations, which were particularly impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to deliver Public Health initiatives and provide physical and emotional health and wellbeing support were tough challenges, particularly during three lockdowns. She was also responsible for the safeguarding of children and young adults, and setting up the Strengthening Families hub. She is a registered Health Visitor working as a School Health Advisor.
Manx Care’s Chief Executive, Teresa Cope, added:
'On behalf of the entire organisation, I’d like to offer my personal congratulations to Terri, Anna, Bree and Lynn. We are delighted that they have received the prestigious Queen’s Nurse Award in recognition of their incredible dedication to their service users and patients, and the work they do to achieve the highest standards of patient care. We are very proud of their achievements.'
Prior to the establishment of Manx Care, Queen’s Nurse awards have previously been given to Long Term Care Co-ordinators, Sue Wilson and Ann Corkill, District Nurses, Deborah Cheadle and Margaret Swindlehurst, retired Nurse, June Kelly, Community Nursing Patient Safety and Governance Co-ordinator, Amanda Sumner (nee Phillips), Safeguarding Children’s Nurse, Cheryl Dodd, and Adult Safeguarding Practitioner, Jane McIlraith.
