Sepsis Stories
by Sian Annakin
21-12-2020

5.00 of 1 votes

Hi all, I’m a Trust Sepsis Nurse Practitioner and trainee ACP within the Deteriorating Patient Team at The Dudley Group of Hospitals in the West Midlands. With 16 years critical care and critical care outreach experience I branched off in 2013 to join the resus team, little did I know a CQUIN would soon change my career! In early 2016 I was asked if would mind picking up a few hours bank collecting data for the sepsis CQUIN then before I knew it I had applied for and got a band 7 as the new sepsis lead for the trust ready to set up a brand new service. Hitting the ground running with NICE guidance 51 just released, I launched a new sepsis screening and action tool for the trust from the UK Sepsis Trust, whilst continuing with the CQUIN and trying to network to forge new links discovered the UKSPF. Technology jumped in to help us out with the CQUIN with the trust changing to e-obs recordings and e-sepsis screening tools as the first parts of our new electronic patient record system in 2018. Four years on and I am no longer the sole sepsis practitioner, as the team and service have grown! I am now part of a deteriorating patient team with four Trust Sepsis Nurse Practitioners training to become ACP’s, plus two sepsis nurses, two resus officers and a deteriorating patient lead. March this year we expanded with our two sepsis nurses and extended our hours and started providing a seven day service from 0700-1930 due to the acuity from covid. Our days start and end with a handover from the ACP’s in the hospital at night team and critical care outreach and then the on call medical handover at 0900. However, the hours in between can and do contain anything as we don’t just attend sepsis patients but work both independently from the deteriorating patient dashboard and alongside the medical emergency team attending any adult or paediatric patient who is deteriorating. As an ALS and EPALS instructor and provider that can include leading or assisting during cardiac arrests. We have two on duty each day so that one can cover our acute medical unit, emergency department and emergency calls on the ground floor - whilst the other covers all other ward areas including paediatrics and maternity. We receive electronic alerts for AKI stage 3 patients, and will aim to ensure bundles are in place for some other acute admissions with decompensated alcoholic liver disease or community acquired pneumonias. Alongside the clinical aspect of the role we also provide bespoke education sessions on sepsis and deteriorating patients from 1:1’s to a lecture theatre full. We have a regular slot on the new FY1, graduate nurse and TNA education programmes, and deliver the UKST education programme at regular intervals in the year. Due to e-sepsis, audits are so much simpler than when the screens were paper based, so reporting within the trust and externally can all be generated directly from the dashboard in seconds giving us oversite of every patient that triggered a single trigger of 3 or a NEWS2 of 5 or more, a PEWS of 5 or more, MEOWS amber or red triggers or a drop of 2 or more on GCS as well as any patient a healthcare professional has said looks sick or with parental concern in paediatrics. We are also taking part in the ADAPT sepsis trial at present so you may also find us recruiting the patients we transfer into critical care – helping us to achieve all four pillars of advanced practice. Finally as well as all this I am currently in my final year of ACP training currently undertaking my dissertation as well as being a clinical educator for the UKST and communications officer for the UKSPF – no rest for the wicked!

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