Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has re-launched an initiative to celebrate and share the achievements of staff across the hospitals.Fab Feedback Fridays involve the executive team visiting a different team around the hospitals each fortnight to take a look at what the team have achieved and implemented, to celebrate our staff and what they are doing on a daily basis.
The sessions have returned due to popular demand as feedback within our recent staff survey showed that teams liked having this method of sharing all of the great stuff that they are doing.
Teams volunteer to showcase their work through Fab Feedback Fridays. The next session involved Kelly Gates and Nicky Ward from ward 24 showcasing their work. Primarily, Kelly and Nicky have been busy implementing and promoting their Purpose 4 Purple campaign.
Staff on the ward are encouraging patients who may have a cognitive impairment such as confusion, delirium, or dementia to wear purple slipper socks in order to ensure they are easily identifiable as being a potentially more vulnerable patient. This is especially important for those patients who are mobile and could leave the ward, get lost and potentially get themselves into harm. The idea of the purple socks is that these patients will then be easily identifiable and thus be able to be approached and stopped before they leave the ward area.The campaign, titled Purpose 4 Purple for Cognitive Impairment Awareness, ties in with the national End PJ Paralysis campaign. Because staff are already encouraging patients to get dressed and out of their PJ's; they are able to ask patients to use the purple slipper socks too. They have also created a #Purpose4Purple board on the ward as a visual communication tool to raise awareness of keeping these patients safe, so all staff are aware of the initiative and what the socks mean and are used for.
Kelly and Nicky have been huge advocates of the campaign, which has now been adopted across all of our wards at both Preston and Chorley; and the team have plans to grow the campaign nationally too. The team have also developed their own sepsis board to create a visual tool to remind staff and showcase to patients the importance of identifying and treating sepsis. This follows the concept that every minute counts. They also use the board to showcase the sepsis six pathway of what to do when sepsis is suspected.
Ward 24 have also implemented a champions board to showcase who does what on the ward, so that it is clear to both staff and patients who to speak to for certain issues. The team also participated in Nutrition and Hydration Week by implementing their own hydration station. The aim of the station is to promote staying hydrated for both patients and staff so they have a drink when they walk by. This started throughout Nutrition and Hydration Week but has stayed on the ward since due to its popularity and importance.Celebrations for this week also included daily activities for patients such as “Milky Monday” with milkshakes, and “Fruity Friday” with healthy fruits for patients.
Nicky said: “It’s absolutely amazing on this ward. There’s always something different going on, and patients absolutely love it.”
Finally, staff on ward 24 have created a “Proud to work on ward 24” board; showcasing all of the fantastic initiatives, team activities and fundraising that they have done. This includes various fundraising activities to gain recliners for patient’s visitors, stereos for the bays, and an ECG machine for the ward.
Kelly said: “This is a tough ward to work on; it can be very challenging, but everyone loves it here. We are all very proud to work on this ward. Our students always come back to the department, and staff are proud to work here so we’re definitely doing something right!”
Karen Swindley said: “Your enthusiasm just shines through and is so obvious to see. You’ve created such a nice environment on the ward and a real sense of community."