So what could we do as a ward????
Another lightbulb moment, every Friday morning is the hospital’s fire test alarm so we decided to turn this into a fire drill.
At 8.30 fire alarm goes off and we now treat it as a real fire. Every member of staff stops what they are doing, checks all the doors and windows and then congregates in the centre of the ward. The shift coordinator collects the ward’s fire evacuation plan contained the ward’s business continuity plan and runs through the evacuation process with everyone.
All of the staff discuss:
• Where the fire exits, fire extinguishers, break glass and the pipped oxygen isolation switch is
• The evacuation route as they have 2 sets of stairs at either end of the ward
• Which order patients are evacuated in
This literally takes 5 minutes!
At the end of the drill the ward’s fire log is completed and this is also a time to capture staff who have not signed the fire evacuation proforma for example we have agency and/or bank nursing staff, visiting staff on the ward, doctors & therapists etc.
Patients are fully informed that it is a fire drill practice.
This fire drill has now raised staff’s knowledge and confidence of being able to evacuate a hospital ward. This has now been adopted by all of the wards within Grantham Hospital.
Sister Rosemary Bull
Ward 1