Lead nurse honoured in NHS Top 75 list
An honorary nurse consultant in palliative care has been named by Nursing Times as one of the top 75 nurses and midwives who have contributed significantly to the NHS since its creation.
Dr Ben Bowers’ research and clinical practice with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is focused on improving anticipatory 'just in case' prescribing for palliative care, to ensure community patients have quick and easy access to medicines that ease symptoms of pain and discomfort at end-of-life.
Ben's research has highlighted the need for clear, reassuring communication and information for patients and their loved ones.
Ben said: "Anticipatory prescribing is a critical intervention, we just sometimes need to communicate it better, and put it in place at the right time.
“I’ve had community services come to me and say: ‘It’s so important what you are doing. You’re making us question motherhood and apple pie, challenging clinical assumptions and helping us to improve end-of-life care.’
“It’s great to hear that my work is having that impact."
Ben is a clinical academic and Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge Department of Public Health and Primary Care.
He left school at 16 with no qualifications to his name and it was a chance visit to an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department that inspired him to go into nursing and further education, studying at Homerton College, Trinity Hall and now working as a Postdoctoral Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge.
His research career was also boosted by fellowships with the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England, hosted by CPFT.
Ben also co-founded and leads the national Queen’s Nursing Institute Research Forum, helping to develop community nursing research capacity across the UK.
Ben said: "I am delighted about this award, I’m actually still a bit in shock!
“There’s an ambition for at least one in 100 nurses to be clinical academics, when in reality it’s probably less than one in 1,000, so if this award does anything I hope it encourages nurses to consider clinical academia – it’s a brilliant career and can give you the chance to improve patient care on a really wide scale.”