Patient feedback indicated that some patients did not feel they were involved in elements of their care planning, and staff feedback suggested that some members of the MDT did not always feel they had been kept up to date with new developments in patient care planning.
The orth0-geriatric nurse practitioners (OGNP) thought of a unique way of including key members of the team in patient care planning and more importantly ensuring that the patient was at the centre of any decision making.
Every morning at 8am the team meet (this includes the bay nurse, discharge Co -ordinator, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and OGNP). This team visit every patient at the bedside. They talk through the current plan with the patient and explain what is happening. By discussing plans by the patient bedside every member of the team is clear on the plan of care and most importantly the patient knows what to expect.
The MDT huddle takes approximately 30 minutes per ward and so by 0930, every patient across three trauma and orthopaedic wards has been seen and spoken to, and all members of the MDT know where to focus efforts for rehabilitation, discharge or ongoing care.
Since the implementation of MDT huddles the wards have had no formal or informal complaints relating to patients feeling that they were not listened to. The team have a better understanding of the patients needs and any concerns can be addressed immediately if they are raised. All members of the MDT feel involved in the patients care.
A natural progression to this initiative has been to introduce an afternoon huddle. This huddle has a reduced team but still visits every patient. The team start the afternoon huddle at 3pm and they provide updates to the patient, families and carers on the days events ensuring that the family and carers area involved in the process.
The initiative has been an amazing success and it has been fantastic to implement an initiative that has given so much to the people it aimed to help, yet cost nothing.
If you want any information remember to the MDT huddles then please email Caroline Wise (Matron) at [email protected] or contact Ann-Marie Riley via Twitter @AnnMarieRiley10