A DEVOTED Inverclyde nurse and her team are in the running for a top UK award - as international interest in their work gathers pace.

Alison Bunce and her team at Compassionate Inverclyde have been shortlisted in the ‘Community Nursing’ category at the RCNi Nurse Awards.

It comes as the team attract interest in their pioneering project from right across the globe.

Compassionate Inverclyde was set up to transform attitudes around death and dying and it aims to create a caring community.

One of its most successful schemes to date is its Back Home Boxes initiative, where people leaving hospital are given packs of essentials to help them settle after leaving wards.

The charity's work has captured attention at home, with the award nomination, and abroad, with people keen to learn more about it.

Rachel Armitage, who is the managing director at RCNi, said: “The RCNi panel of professional judges voted Alison and the Compassionate Inverclyde team as a finalist because of their incredible story and the impact their work has had on bereavement support.

"With the nursing shortage high on the national agenda, it’s important that we give nurses like Alison the recognition they deserve, and we look forward to celebrating her work at the awards."

Despite limited funding and personnel, Alison and the team’s community model has thrived, with a current oversubscription of volunteers.

They have also had international interest, leading to presentations in Sydney, Australia, and Ohio in the United States.

Alison and her team have been recognised for their work in bringing the community together to transform attitudes and behaviour around bereavement.

The motivation behind Compassionate Inverclyde was the increasing demand on NHS and social care services and a lack of available funding and resources, particularly due to the UK’s ageing population.

After its launch last March, Alison worked on ways to enable neighbourhoods to develop individual solutions to support ill, dying or bereaved residents, and recruited volunteers to sustain the projects.

She will find out if she has won the RCNi award in July.