It impacts on those who become ill, the NHS services that provide direct care, and on the wider health and social care system that supports people in at-risk groups.
Hospital Staff play a key role preventing the spread of Flu. 77% of people infected with Flu have no symptoms but are still capable of passing the virus around.
At James Paget University Hospital the uptake of the Flu Vaccine was below national average, last year only 39% of front line staff were vaccinated against Flu. These figures have been similar for last few years.
This year we were determined to do better. Following an extensive staff survey it became obvious that we were fighting against two problems.
1- There is a lot of myth and bad press circulating regarding the Flu and this influenced a lot of staff against getting vaccinated.
2- Lack of accessibility to the clinics due to staff work load and inability to leave their clinical areas.
We wanted to create a more positive culture surrounding the Flu
This year we have created an awareness campaign trying to touch the care and compassionate side that every member has.
For that reason we have used staff personal stories telling ‘Why I have the Flu Jab’.
The key was also to make the experience FUN.
To do that we created a Flu Fighter theme and for staff to dress up and take a picture with the selfie frame. We had staff dressed up as Cowboys, Halloween, Bonfire Night, I’m a Flu Virus, GET ME OUT OF HERE’ and in December we had a Christmas theme making sure that staff were not on Santa’s naughty list and have the Flu jab. HO!! HO!! HO!!
To make the flu clinics more accessible we have created Sunrise, Sunset and Twilight Clinics were staff can visit before or after their shift.
We situated the Clinic just next to the Hospital main entrance.
We also had a mobile clinic enabling us to go to wards to vaccinate staff on the spot.
Like a good old fashion Martini, we were able to vaccinate staff anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
We have also used social media and staff bulletins to publish pictures and create a momentum, created a Flu Fighters “Wall of Fame” at the Aubergine where everyone can see them.
So far the strategy is paying off and people are talking about the pictures instead of the Flu. Also it has given a sense of pride amongst staff as their pictures are used in social media and the internal bulletins.
This year we had a big push of social media.
We adopted #ProtectYourSelfie hash tag which is going viral on social media.
Some of the material has been seen by over 20,000 people.
We have created a Flu page on the hospital website where you can watch all the material produced. http://www.jpaget.nhs.uk/patients-visitors/what-you-need-to-know-about-flu/
At the end of December we vaccinated nearly double the amount of frontline staff as previous years.
As I am writing this blog the current uptake of the Flu jab amongst the frontline staff is 65.7% and staff are continuing to make appointments.
But most important thing is that we have made the James Paget University Hospital a safer place for patients, relatives and staff.