IDEAS by nurses that are re-shaping the care of patients and meeting the needs of carers in Darlington have been put forward for national awards.

Nursing staff working with patients have devised the initiatives that address the issues they encounter and improve the care they offer.

Six ideas have been put forward to the Primary Care College Learning Champions Awards, with one reaching the final.

The initiative that made it to the final on June 18 is the administration of insulin by community auxiliaries.

Win Suggett, Nurse Development Facilitator, said that because self-injecting is unpleasant, and many carers find it difficult, it makes more sense for a health professional to do it.

"Carers cannot understand why the person who comes four times a day to wash their relative cannot administer insulin," she said.

"We can train our staff to do some of this work. It makes much more sense to the public if a health professional does it."

Another initiative that has been commended is the nurse-led lymphoedema service.

Previously, there was no service for people with the condition, so this has been addressed by nurses working with the hospice to meet the need.

Mrs Suggett said: "All the initiatives put forward are helping to improve Darlington's health and wellbeing."

Tom Stebbings, non-executive director of Darlington Primary Care Trust, said: "Patient experience has improved with all these ideas. The nurse's job is hard enough without developing new initiatives and they are to be congratulated on coming forward with these improvements."