Towards the end of 2022 ULHT became one of 13 pilot sites taking forward the development of a new national policy for Care Partners. Implicit within this work was the discussion and consideration of visiting. Visits from loved ones are vital to the health & wellbeing of our patients, these relationships matter and they matter all the more if there is a carer involved. At ULHT we see our carers as expert partners in care and over 5 years ago introduced the carers badge scheme (which incidentally even won a FAB award!!) - progressing this to embrace the principles of Care Partners seemed a natural step. What quickly became evident was the need to consider both a Visiting Policy and a Care Partners Policy; after all a carer is more than a traditional visitor - but an important member of our multidisciplinary team in many cases.
I could quite easily have hidden away in a darkened room and written both these policies but whilst having both personal and professional experience I knew I was not the expert; the experts are our staff and our patients; and their carers and families. We needed to develop this together, challenging the assumption that our patients, families and carers are passive recipients of care and recognise their contribution in the successful delivery of our services (Cahn, 2000).
And so we started our codesign journey.
First we audited and reviewed visiting practice across all our wards across all our sites; 51 wards in total. We had returned to ‘pre-COVID’ visiting arrangements in September 2022 so auditing in January had a couple of months of back to business as usual to review. We found:
• 11 different visiting schedules, all based on the ‘its-always-been-that-way’ methodology.
• Significant variation in discretion decisions and exceptions.
• Confusing for staff so imagine the confusion for patients and visitors.
• As our Carers Badge had been paused during COVID it was clear we needed a re-energising and relaunch.
Having identified stakeholders we set a schedule for the work:
1. Share the issues, audit & review findings for discussion at staff and patient codesign workshops with:
Ward Sisters & Matrons
Patient Panel
Patient Experience Group
Nursing, Midwifery & AHP Advisory Forum.
2. Develop proposal drafts based upon those discussions.
3. Return to above forums for further discussion of proposals.
4. Agree proposals
5. Write policies – seek approval & launch.
Our codesign workshop discussions focused on definitions of Care Partners and Visitors, the consideration of young carers and children visiting, what should visiting times be? And would this be different for Care Partners?
And we did just that:
• We agreed different definitions of both visitors and Care Partners.
• We agreed visiting times across all wards and departments across all sites and specialties of 2-8pm.
• We agreed that for Care Partners they would be welcomed at any time and for as long as they wished.
• We rebranded and refreshed our Carers Badges.
• We co-wrote a codesigned Visiting Charter.
• We co-wrote codesigned Visiting Policy and Care Partners Policy.
You can read and download the full project report HERE
Read and download the new codesigned visiting policy HERE and the Care Partners Policy HERE