Royal recognition for local Nurse

A Nurse from a local NHS Trust attended a Royal Reception, at Buckingham Palace, hosted by the Prince of Wales, in order to thank those engaged in frontline Nursing across the United Kingdom.

Linda Johnstone, Lead Nurse and Clinical Director for Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust's (CWP) Substance Misuse Service, was nominated to attend the celebratory event by CWP's Director of Nursing Avril Devaney and was 1 of 350 guests representing Nurses from throughout the profession.

Linda has worked for the Trust for 22 years and became the Trust wide Lead Nurse for Substance Misuse Services, in 2001, where she developed a clinical network for Nurses to share expertise and best practice in care and treatment for Drug and Alcohol Service users.

In 2015, Linda was appointed as a Nurse Consultant and Clinical Director for CWP.  Then in October 2018, Linda was awarded the:- 'contribution to leadership' award at the CWP Recognition Awards.

Linda commented:- "I was taken completely by surprise when I received the invitation to attend Buckingham Palace! It's an honour to be invited to such a prestigious event. The evening was absolutely wonderful. It was truly inspiring to be surrounded by so many Nurses and to see the work we do being celebrated."

Avril Devaney MBE, Director of Nursing, Therapies and Partnership at CWP, said:- "I put Linda forward because of the inspiring work she has done and continues to do for people who access our Substance Misuse Service. Linda is a brilliant role model for Nursing and has achieved so much during her time at CWP. I can think of no better person to represent Nursing."

Edge Hill University announces Medical School

EDGE Hill University will offer an Access to Medicine course from 2019 and train Doctors, from 2020, following the announcement by the Secretary of State for Health to establish a Medical School, at the University. The new facility will open at the Ormskirk Campus, within the successful Faculty of Health and Social Care which is already 1 of the largest providers of Health and Social Care education in the North West of England.

The funding has been announced following a highly competitive process to allocate 1,500 additional places to train Doctors, in England.

The new Medical School is 1 of only 3 new free standing Medical Schools, in the Country and the only 1 in the North West, the Undergraduate programme complementing the University's well established Postgraduate Medical Degrees.

The expansion opens the door for many more students to gain high quality medical education and training. Undergraduate Medical courses are currently heavily oversubscribed and this will open up new opportunities for many aspiring Doctors and medical professionals.

The University 1st trained Nurses over 50 years ago, and was 1 of the 1st to offer large scale Nursing at Undergraduate Degree level leading to professional registration. The Faculty's suite of professional programmes includes all disciplines of:- Nursing, Midwifery, Paramedic Practice, Operating Department Practice and Social Work, at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels.

Seth Crofts, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Care said:- "The Faculty of Health and Social Care has an established reputation for providing an excellent student experience with high level tutorial support. We are determined that our Medical School will follow this tradition enabling our students to be resilient and flexible doctors who are able to respond to the current challenges in the NHS. We are keen to recruit students from a wide range of backgrounds who have a real commitment to the populations that we serve across the North West. Our programme will strongly endorse multi professional learning and will draw on a wide expertise from Doctors who are clinical experts at our Hospital and community partners across the North West. We are developing a state of the art teaching facility on the Ormskirk campus to house the new Medical School, which will provide leading clinical simulation and laboratory facilities making use of the latest interactive technology."

In addition to the above programmes, the University's Postgraduate Medical Institute houses well established educational programmes and programmatic research involving external stakeholders and delivers work based Postgraduate medical leadership throughout the Region.

Dr John Cater, Vice-Chancellor at Edge Hill University said:- "For the past decade Edge Hill University has been providing postgraduate medical education and training for qualified Doctors working within the NHS. I am absolutely delighted that this work has been recognised by the Department of Health, who have now decided to allocate Undergraduate medical numbers to the University for the 1st time. The Edge Hill University Medical School represents an important and significant milestone in the development of a hugely successful University, and builds upon the outstanding work of the Faculty of Health and Social Care in the delivery of education and training for Nurses, Midwives, Paramedics and Operating Department staff over many years. We are also determined that the Edge Hill University Medical School will be distinctive, with a strong focus on widening access, community medicine, general practice and psychiatry."