Avon ward were one of the lead implementers of the End PJ Paralysis initiative where the team encouraged patients to get up, dressed and moving. Seeing the good results from the mind set the campaign created the team put their heads together to look at ways to expand this further for the benefit to patients. The decision was to focus on special activities and dates that were happening across the country such as the Royal Wedding, Wimbledon, and World Cup etc.
The team wanted to replicate these events and bring them into the hospital giving our patients the opportunity to enjoy them.
The first date celebrated was the Royal Wedding in May.
The way that this was achieved was by the use of the mobile computers on the ward and sitting the patients around the dining tables in the bays so that they could watch the event as well as get up dressed and moving. This also generated a social setting and led to conversation amongst the patients and we saw morale of the patients rise just in a simple social interaction of chatting and relieving the boredom and can be depression of sitting by the hospital bed.
Next was the World Cup, which was more of a favourite with the gentlemen using the same approach and also the catering team were happy to supply food related to the events widening the support for helping to get patients up , dressed and moving .
Ladies’ day at Ascot was our next interactive day. The ladies were given hats and fascinators to wear. Scones and jam were served to all patients that could have this treat.
One patient later rang her daughter and was heard telling her that she had had the best time.
Next we moved onto Wimbledon supplying our patients with strawberries and cream and even had a swing ball game available.
During these activities we found that the patients really enjoyed themselves and were keen to get up and be involved.
Staff also seemed enthused by it, bringing in items to go with the theme. Some staff came in on their days off to help as they did not want to miss out.
We found that by just this simple change of working we were spending more time with our patients and as a result the key benefits were our falls numbers reduced along with length of stay.
Staff morale was improved and other wards were asking what we were doing next.
As a division we came up with some new ideas to roll out the benefits across the wider organisation.
We continued on to have a “Best of British” day and even a sports day on the ward.
The rewards have been clear to us.
We have had fun with our patients but have never forgotten the serious messages.
We are proud to have reduced falls, reduced the length of stay, improved the morale of staff along with staff retention and improved our patient feedback experience.
South-Warwickshire-Avon-Ward-Patient-Participation-Get-up-Dressed-and-Moving.