Alana Delaforce wins Young Investigator Award

20/Nov/2019     Health

A keen interest in improving the quality of blood management in the acute healthcare setting at Mater has won Alana Delaforce the Young Investigator Award at the Blood 2019 conference–Australia New Zealand Society for Blood Transfusion.

As Mater’s Quality Coordinator for Blood Management Standards and Apheresis, Alana works within the Clinical Governance team to ensure Mater People can take advantage of evolving clinical evidence and innovation in clinical practice to meet and exceed standards for the effective use of blood products.

The award recognised Alana’s journal publication that focused on the importance of personalised feedback to clinicians following clinical audits of blood transfusion practice.

“It is rewarding working with clinicians to improve practice, and I am always looking for new ways to help support this process”

“Audit and feedback is an important part of the work we do, and the focus of this one was on the use of blood in clinical practice relative to newly developed patient blood management guidelines,” Alana said.

“Our challenge was to communicate the audit results in a way that could help clinicians identify opportunities where they could improve practice, and so we reported the results using an easy to follow flowchart that outlines the key steps to enhance and improve the effectiveness of feedback”.

 “As part of the Clinical Governance team at Mater, I am looking forward to working with clinicians to further develop processes which will assist in optimising patients for surgery and support them to conserve blood, avoiding potentially preventable blood transfusions,” Alana said.

 “My work within the Clinical Governance team and the opportunity I have been given helps support my journey to completing a PhD, and improving outcomes for Mater patients.

“It is my vision that the work we are undertaking in the Clinical Governance team will contribute towards the provision of exceptional care,” she said.

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