Hospital pioneer Paul wins praise

A NURSE has been commended for helping reduce violence towards hospital staff after devising a pioneering training scheme.

Paul Broad, a lead training nurse at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS), has been working in the profession for 32 years.

The 52-year-old, from Keele Road, in Newcastle, above, trained at the UHNS and has also carried out work at Mid Staffordshire Hospitals.

He said: "My background has been working in critical care with mainly heart and lung surgery patients.

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"In the last 10 years I have moved into more clinical education and I am now teaching nursing as well as actually practising."

The father-of-one took extra training three years ago in managing potential aggression in patients.

After worrying reports of aggressive and violent incidents on the wards, he helped to develop a further training programme in dealing with frail and elderly patients.

He then worked with training provider Positive Options, based at Lymedale Business Park, Chesterton, to make the course available to some of his colleagues.

Paul said: "A lot of this training was developed in mental health hospitals because of the nature of the behaviour, so this is a first in a way.

"I think it is important because we are an ageing population and staff are exposed to more and more patients with dementia.

"In a perfect world, everyone would have the Managing Actual and Potential Aggression training."

Thanks to Paul and the team, around six specially devised training sessions have been held at UHNS in the last 18 months.

The sessions are aimed at all members of staff, with doctors and nurses included.

Staff learn how to manage conflict early to prevent potentially violent incidents.

And the courses have brought results, with the Royal Infirmary's elderly wards already seeing a decrease in violent or aggressive incidents.

Paul said: "There has been a reduction in the number of incidents where staff have been harmed by patients with challenging behaviour.

"And it also gives the staff more confidence to be able to deal with these types of situations."

Thanks to his commitment towards training others, Paul has been nominated in the NHS category in The Sentinel's Our Heroes awards.

He said: "I am elated to be nominated for the award.

"And, along with the team and the training company, I think we are pleasantly surprised."

Paul has been married to wife Janice for 19 years and has one son Alex, aged 13.

The modest nurse added: "It was a team effort and I wouldn't want to take all the credit.

"I think we have done a very good job here and we are all pleased by the positive results."

The hospital has also been named one of 10 short listed entrants for the national Pioneers of Care Award.