8 January 2019

A nurse at the Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has been named as one of the best in the country for “making an impact on nursing in 2018”.

Jules Lewis, End of Life Care Facilitator

Jules Lewis, End of Life Care Facilitator at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) was named in the ‘100 Outstanding Nurses’ poll undertaken by ‘We Nurses’. There are currently around 285,000 nurses working in the NHS.

We Nurses is part of the online ‘We Community’ which is run by healthcare professionals to share ideas and expertise. The community also includes groups such as ‘We Pharmacists’, ‘We Health Visitors’ and ‘We Midwives’.

To make the list, nominees had to meet four criteria. They must have:

  • Made a difference to patient care at a community or national level
  • Made a difference to the understanding of best nursing practice
  • Made a difference to the public and policy-makers’ understanding of the contribution made by nurses
  • Positively promoted nursing

Jules, who works across the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, was nominated for her work in end of life care, which has included establishing the Swan Fund to pay for improvements.

These improvements include Swan Rooms for patients at the end of their life and their loved ones to use and Swan boxes which contain relative information, vouchers for a hot drink and a cake a packet of forget me not seeds, a swan pen and paper, a small pack of tissues, a small ribbon-tie bag for jewellery or a hair lock, and a bag for any property. They can also be used as memory boxes for people to keep special items such as photographs, jewellery, certificates and cards.

The Swan boxes are supported by the League of Friends of The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Friends of the Princess Royal Hospital.

Jules said: “I am incredibly proud to have been named on this list alongside so many other outstanding nurses. In June I will celebrate 30 years as a nurse and this is the icing on the cake.

“I am passionate about what I do and have the support of some amazing colleagues and volunteers, so I would also like to thank them for all they do.”

Simon Wright, Chief Executive at SaTH, said: “Jules is a tremendous example of an individual who displays our Trust Values every single day both inside and outside our hospitals. We are tremendously proud of her.”