It was my honour to present the award for the Vascular Access Nurse of the Year at the BJN Awards in London in March 2025, alongside Kathryn Topley from Solventum. The National Infusion and Vascular Access Society (NIVAS) board judged the entries on behalf of BJN and this year there were more entries than ever. NIVAS is proud to support the BJN Awards, the event is an opportunity to give recognition to nurses in many different categories and BJN always organises a brilliant event. This year was no exception, the most impressive aspect is it is totally free for the shortlisted to attend, a rarity in awards ceremonies these days.
The Vascular Access Nurse of the Year award, which was sponsored this year by Solventum, is an opportunity to shine a light on our specialism and a reminder of how invaluable we are. It should be remembered that 90% of hospital patients receive some form of vascular access. Furthermore, up to 50% of those patients will have difficult intravenous access needs. A vascular access team can reduce complications associated with multiple attempts at gaining vascular access and, equally as important, can improve the patient's experience. Now more than ever, the value of vascular access teams is being recognised. Indeed, since the publication in 2022 of the NIVAS white paper outlining the benefits of a nurse-led vascular access team, I have seen so many more hospitals prioritising and peer reviewing vascular access services.
Recognising innovation
This year's shortlisted finalists all demonstrated excellence and innovation in vascular access but there could only be one gold winner and it was Karen Harrold, SACT and IV Access Nurse Consultant from Mount Vernon Cancer Centre. Silver was won by Aldwin Del Mundo, Lead Nurse for the Vascular Access Service and Radiology Nursing, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the bronze award went to Manu Lonappan, Vascular Access Nurse and Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner, General Surgery, from United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Karen has over 35 years' experience in both oncology and vascular access. She stood out from the other excellent entries not just because of her clinical and academic achievements but because of her contribution to national collaboratives to improve practice and patient safety. Karen has contributed her knowledge and expertise to the working group of the Device Related Infection Prevention Practice (DRIPP) Collaborative. Karen was also the driving force behind the development of the Vascular Access Device (VAD) Complications Guide within the DRIPP project (https://dripp.org.uk/Resources/vascular.html). This provides a practical evidence-based guide for practitioners of the signs and symptoms of complications associated with vascular access. Karen was also a specialist expert contributor to the NIVAS Infiltration and Extravasation Toolkit (https://tinyurl.com/57rbyavm) and was a huge support to me while I was writing it.
Karen completed her PhD in 2019, which explored the quality of care in extravasation management. Karen used her PhD to change the patient pathway in her service, to ensure timelier and patient-focused care, including becoming competent in the washout procedure to treat extravasation.
It was a proud moment for me to present the award this year on behalf of NIVAS and BJN.
An exciting year ahead
NIVAS continues to raise the profile of vascular access and IV therapy in the UK. We continue to work with the NHS, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, UK Health Security Agency, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and more. We are on track to publish the National Standard for IV Therapy and Vascular Access in the coming months. These will replace the Royal College of Nursing's Standards for Infusion Therapy. NIVAS is also launching the advanced vascular access course at level 7, hosted by Surrey University, which is due to begin in the summer.
It will be an exciting year for NIVAS. We also have our national conference on 1-2 July in Bristol. I hope to see you all then. Details on all of these matters can be found on the website (www.NIVAS.org.uk).