Enhancing roles, improving quality and efficiency: Non-medical cardiac stress - best practice in action. An interactive event on enhancing the roles of nurses and allied health professionals is to be hosted by a Nuclear Medicine team from the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust on March 10, 2010. The team was a finalist in the NHS Live category of the 2009 Health and Social Care Awards. The Leicester team devised a training programme to enable nurses and technologists to stress patients for myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS), a procedure previously carried out by medical staff.  Its approach dramatically reduced waiting times from 42 to 2 weeks. This free event will use this example to explore how extending the role of non-medical professionals can enhance patient care and make services more efficient. Delegates will have opportunity to:

-hear about the critical success factors that enabled the Leicester team to succeed
-find out more about extended roles and advanced practice for non-medical staff
-discuss and reflect on their own issues and experiences and those of their patients
-explore the role of imaging in cardiology and the 18 week pathway
-participate in an interactive Thinking Differently workshop on service redesign run by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.

It has been designed for staff in two key groups – those interested in extending the role of non-medical staff and those involved in providing imaging services. It is expected to appeal, for example, to nurses, technologists, radiographers, radiologists, physicists, cardiologists and service managers. To find out more about the event and to register please click here <http://emod-handler.crmondemand.com/ctd/lu?RECIP=test-rtoken&MRKID=test-marker-id&T=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.institute.nhs.uk%2Fenhancingroles> . Please forward this invite to any colleagues who may be interested in attending this event.