A NURSE consultant at Newcastle Hospital’s National Renal Complement Therapeutics Centre (NRCTC) has been awarded ‘Renal Nurse of the Year’ at the prestigious British Journal of Nursing Awards.
Christine Maville received the accolade in recognition of her important contribution to improving nursing care for the ultra-rare condition atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS).
The team at the NRCTC, identified the underlying cause of aHUS, a disease that can result in kidney failure and a lifetime on dialysis. Their work led to a treatment that prevents kidney failure, but that also increases the risk of meningococcal sepsis.
Building on this award-winning work, Christine then led further research to reduce the risk of meningococcal infection in patients with aHUS.
More recently, she helped put the findings of new NRCTC research into practice. This research showed that a personalised approach based on each patient’s disease activity could be just as safe as keeping patients on long-term medication.
By turning their research into real-world improvements for aHUS patients, she and her team are cutting the risk of meningococcal sepsis, reducing the treatment burden, and generating NHS savings of around £500 million over the next 10 years.
Christine has redesigned the nursing service at the NRCTC to make care more consistent and effective for all patients. She has also increased the amount of direct contact and support patients receive across England and Scotland.
She has worked with patients and their families to understand what is important to them in terms of care delivery, and ensured their views were embedded into the service model and materials.
Christine continues to lead and develop the NRCTC nursing service and is passionate to further evolve and improve the care and experience for patients with this ultra-rare disease.
Christine commented: “I feel very honoured to win the British Journal of Nursing’s Renal Nurse of the Year. Renal nurses across the country carry out fantastic work for their patients every day. It is special to think that the work I do stands out at a national level. I am committed to continually improving standards of care for my patients, so they have a better experience of living with their condition. I am supported by a fantastic team, and we work collectively to improve the lives of patients with aHUS”.
Ian Joy, Executive Chief Nurse at Newcastle Hospitals, said: “This is award is truly well deserved and is testament to Christine’s hard work, professionalism and dedication. Christine exemplifies the profound impact the nurse consultant role has, by leading the way in clinical practice and transformation, leadership, research and education whilst keeping the patient at the heart of everything that we do. Christine is an inspiration to many, and we are incredibly proud of her achievement and that of the wider NRCTC.”
Sir Paul Ennals, Chair of Newcastle Hospitals, said: “Christine’s work exemplifies the very best traditions of ground-breaking medical care. All the greatest changes in medical practice come through a partnership between first class researchers, first-class medics and first-class nursing. Christine’s award properly recognises her outstanding contribution to changing lives, not just in Newcastle but much wider.”
