Student awarded healthcare volunteer award
A student from Cardiff Metropolitan University was recently awarded the title of Healthcare Volunteer of the Year at the South Wales Health & Care Awards for his work around improving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates.
Phil Hill, 51 from Newport, is a Professional Doctorate student in Cardiff Met’s Centre for Health Activity and Wellbeing Research (CAWR), the University’s research centre. He also works at Save a Life Cymru, part of NHS Wales, to increase cardiac arrest survival in Wales through the promotion of CPR and defibrillation in communities.
The South Wales Health & Care Awards, held in association with the University of South Wales, recognise those in the community whose efforts in the health and care industry have gone above and beyond.
Phil said: “It is estimated that 19 people suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Wales every day, and only one or two of those are likely to survive. This is not the same as a heart attack and does not just affect the middle aged, as an estimated 12 children and young people a week die from OHCA.”
Phil also volunteers as a Clinical Director for the Jack’s Appeal which received the Health Charity of the Year Award at the South Wales Health & Care Awards.
Following the sudden death of their 15-year-old son, Jack Thomas, in February 2012, his parents from Blackwood set up Jack’s Appeal. The aim from the start was to try and reduce the death toll from OHCA in Gwent. It started with a defibrillator in schools programme supported by the Aneurin Bevan University Health board in memory of Jack. A Jack’s Law petition was submitted to the Welsh Government to lobby for defibs to become mandatory in all public places.
Jack’s Appeal developed into establishing public access defibrillation sites (PADs), supplying externally mounted cabinets so the defibs could be accessed 24 hours a day. This was also supported by the Welsh Ambulance Service piloting defibs in nursing homes.
Phil continued: “Jack’s parents want to prevent what happened to him happening to any other family. Multiple lives have been saved with the equipment but even when someone dies, the loved ones are often comforted that a defib was available, having given them a better chance than without one.”
Seconded from the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) where he is a Senior Nurse, Phil joined Cardiff Met as a Professional Doctorate in 2022, funded by Save a Life Cymru.
The CAWR Save a Life Cymru Research Hub Lead, Dr Mikel Mellick, said: “Phil is an outstanding individual who through both his professional nurse practitioner role over many years and his commitment to the Jack’s Appeal charity is making a huge contribution to improving outcomes of OHCA survival rates across Welsh communities. His professional doctorate at Cardiff Met is a practice-based action research project investigating the chain of survival in out of hospital cardiac arrests.”