During the Corona period, nursing staff were “systemically important” and were celebrated and applauded. Years later, they struggle for better pay – and more appreciation for their work, which can be complex, demanding, but also meaningful. The city of Frankfurt would like to show respect for the profession by awarding a nursing award. It should now be awarded every two years. Five finalists applied for the topic “Appreciation in Care”, and a jury chose the winners on Tuesday evening.
The “Schwani”, as employees of the Agaplesion Schwanthaler Carrées call their care facility, won first place for its diversity program, endowed with 2,500 euros. The house impressed with its concept of welcoming diversity among patients and employees and promoting unprejudiced encounters. The “Schwani” is currently applying for certification as a “Diversity Place to Live” from the Berlin Gay Advisory Service. This comprehensive quality seal not only takes queer content into account under diversity, but also the care of migrants and the inclusion of disabled people.
The fact that firefighters, police officers and doctors, but not nurses, play a main role in many children’s books inspired the project “Pika – Care in Children’s Eyes”. At several university hospitals, young patients were asked to paint their view of the work of nurses. A scientific image analysis came to very positive results, which can now be incorporated into a book project thanks to the prize money of 1,500 euros for second place.
Certification as a “living place for diversity” is sought
A further training project from Agaplesion Markus Diakonie earned third place and thus 1,000 euros. In-house training is intended to prepare nursing staff with different qualifications for the role of coordinator of a shift. The course covers communication and conflict management, organizing care teams and assigning tasks, as well as creating route planning. In this way, the talents of the employees should be used and responsibility shared.
The “cognition teams” from the Markus Hospital were also among the finalists. These specially trained nursing staff accompany dementia patients in the clinic. For people with dementia, a foreign environment is a big challenge: people and places are unknown, the daily routine is determined by someone else. You may experience bouts of confusion even before medical treatment begins. The cognitive teams relieve their colleagues and at the same time raise awareness of the needs of this patient group. Also nominated for the Nursing Prize was the “Kitteltaschenbuch”, designed by an interdisciplinary team at Frankfurt University Hospital, which contains 151 pages containing the most important things that a newbie nurse in the intensive care unit needs to know. Experts from various disciplines as well as trainees were interviewed in order to bring in many perspectives.