A team from the National Institute for Health Research Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (NIHR SRMRC) will find out tonight (Wednesday 29 October 2014) if they have won a prestigious Nursing Times Award.

The team, based at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), is a finalist in the Clinical Research Nursing Category for their entry titled "24/7 Research for 24/7 Trauma: recruitment of more patients to research trials to improve trauma and critical care patient outcomes."

The purpose of the initiative was to create 24/7, 365-day access to trauma patients with the aim of increasing the number of patients recruited to research trials.

It is led by the Trust’s trauma research nurse team which is the first and only UK team to work 24/7, 365 days a year. It's also the only UK team to enrol injured military and civilian personnel into clinical trials on one site, under the leadership of the NIHR SRMRC.

It is hoped that larger numbers of patients taking part in trials will help improve trauma and critical patient outcomes at a local, national and international level.

NIHR SRMRC Programme Manager Dr Karen Piper explained: “The 24/7 service was launched in 2012 and within the first two years we have seen a marked improvement in accruals to clinical research studies, with over 500 to date.

“This can be explained by 60% of our trauma patients being recruited to clinical trials out-of-hours.

“By promoting the success of our 24/7 research infrastructure we hope to encourage other hospitals to adopt a similar approach, thereby maximising the outcome for patients recruited and for all traumatically injured and critically ill patients in the future.”

The 2014 Nursing Times Awards has had a record-breaking year for entries and the judges say they have been extremely impressed with the high standard.

The winners will be announced during a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.