TWO local healthcare workers are in line for top awards after being recognised for the work they do.

Viki Jenkins, who runs clinics throughout Dwyfor and Meirionnydd, is one of the finalists of the Innovation in Nursing category at this year’s Royal College of Nursing Awards and Steven Evans-Jones, a healthcare assistant based at Dolgellau Hospital Out Patient Department, is shortlisted for the Healthcare Assistant of the Year award.

The awards offer recognition to those nurses who demonstrate excellence in practice.

Viki, a specialist nurse, who comes from Harlech, is developing a pioneering mobile heart scanning clinic, an innovation which is the first of its kind in the UK.

The clinic helps cut waiting times for patients in rural parts of the region.

Viki, is a Masters-level advanced nurse practitioner and is currently in training in echocardiography, which will see her become British Society of Echocardiography accredited as a measure of gold standard of practice – this will result in her being the first advanced nurse practitioner in the UK, and possibly worldwide, to develop this academically accredited scope and role.

She said: “My clinics are delivered in community hospitals, GP surgeries and sometimes the homes of housebound patients, meaning people in rural areas of north Wales are given access to assessment and diagnosis close to home, rather than having to travel to the district general hospitals.

“We use echo scanning to diagnose patients for the first time or to carry out regular check-ups of those that have suffered with cardiac problems in the past. Instead of referring scans back to consultants, we will interpret them and give results there and then to the patient and we can then initiate the next course of action.”

Viki is now undergoing extra training so that she will be able to start off with the patient and see them from investigation, through diagnosis and then treatment.

Steven has helped to develop a range of initiatives to improve health education and reduce health inequalities in the rural area he serves, inside his hospital out patient department and through building links with the wider community.

He is a regular at Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor, Dolgellau where he holds awareness sessions with the students on issues such as testicular cancer and sexual health.

Steven, who is an ambassador for the men’s health charity Orchid, said he was delighted to be nominated for the prestigious award.

He said: “I am thrilled to be nominated for healthcare assistant of the year. I came to work in the out patient department a couple of years ago and I was encouraged to develop my own projects as part of their Health Promotion Hub initiative.

“This award is for my work but there would be no award without the support and enthusiasm of the out patient team that I work with.”

The awards will be held in Cardiff on 15 November.