Continued commitment for patient care: Fresenius Kabi Germany supports Queen Silvia Nursing Award

In order to further improve patients’ quality of life and the working conditions of healthcare professionals, Fresenius Kabi Germany supports the Queen Silvia Nursing Award. For the first time in its history, the jury invited student nurses as well certified nurses to join the competition. In the end, student nurse Linda Smit won the prestigious award in this strong field of participants with her idea of the “stirring tube”.

Already at the beginning of the pandemic, Linda realized that more antibiotics are prescribed in order to minimize the risk of superinfections. These antibiotics are administered as infusion based on powdered substances. In theory, this powder should be dissolved through swiveling, but in daily practice the bottle is shaken to save time, which takes several minutes as well. In order to further save valuable time and improve patient care, Linda developed the idea to use magnetic stirrers for this process.

When a container with liquid and a magnetic stick is placed on the stirrer, it rotates with the magnet and mixes the liquid. In order to transfer this method to the use of antibiotics, Linda developed a specific tube, which simplifies the placement of the stick into an infusion bottle. The healthcare professional directs the infusion liquid through the tube into the bottle with the powder, puts the stick into the container and places it on the magnetic stirrer. During this automated stirring process, the medical staff gains valuable time to take care of patients.

Jury member Dagmar Scherrer from the management of Fresenius Kabi Germany and Head of FresuCare Services was very impressed by this idea and the large prototype created in a 3D printer: “This excellent idea shows how ‘caring for life’ guides healthcare professionals such as Linda in her daily treatment of critically and chronically ill patients. Her well thought out solution saves medical staff valuable time that can be used to further improve the care and life of patients.”

The Queen Silvia Nursing Award was founded in 2013 as a gift to Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden for her birthday. The scholarship, that is endowed with €6,000, is open for nursing students and examined nurses in Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, Lithuania and the USA. It is the goal of the Queen Silvia Nursing Award to improve the working conditions for nursing staff, patients and their families.