Matrons’ tea round marks NHS Change Day at GWH (From Swindon Advertiser)

Matrons’ tea round marks NHS Change Day at GWH

10:38am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News By Web Team

THE Great Western Hospital is taking part in NHS Change Day today by hosting a Matrons’ tea round on all the wards.

The day, which is marked at hospitals across the country, is a day of collective action to improve care for patients.

Change Day is an initiative devised by clinical and managerial leaders across the NHS in England. The idea is to create a mass movement of people working in the NHS demonstrating the difference they can make by one simple act and proving that large scale improvement is possible in the NHS.

GWH is making hydration the focus of the day with the tea rounds. As well as spending that little bit of extra time with patients over a cup of tea, the tea round will also involve Matrons carrying out the 15 Steps Challenge, a toolkit designed to help them to understand what quality care looks like from a patient’s perspective.

The 15 Steps Challenge was developed in 2012 as part of the national Productive Ward Programme, with the aim of supporting staff to identify time wasting activities and inefficiencies that take time away from caring for patients.

Karen Braid, Service Transformation Lead said: “The 15 Steps Challenge was developed by those involved in the Productive Ward Programme and arose from a patient workshop where someone said they could tell what kind of care their relative was going to get within 15 steps of walking onto a ward.

“The Challenge toolkit provides a way of understanding patients’ first impressions more clearly and exploring what the patient is experiencing. It is broken down into sections such as how welcoming the ward is, how safe, how well-organised and calm.

“For NHS Change Day we wanted to do a mix of things, so the Matrons tea rounds will allow us to implement the 15 Steps Challenge and continue with our campaign on raising the importance of patient hydration amongst staff and the patients themselves.”

The hospital is planning to make the tea rounds a monthly occurrence and there has already been a successful trial on one of the wards.

Caroline Wretham, Matron for Cardiology and Stroke said: “Myself and a colleague completed a tea round last month using the 15 Step Challenge on Mercury Ward. I think first impressions of a ward are what stay with you, so it was a very valuable and gave me a useful insight into what patients are experiencing.

“We do regular audits routinely, but this was an opportunity to check on all aspects of the patient’s care at the same time such as hydration and nutrition, and use the 15 Steps Challenge toolkit. I found it very eye opening, it was also useful to do it in the afternoon because we could then interact with the patient’s relatives as well. The response from patients on the ward was fantastic.

“The monthly tea round acts almost as an interim check, allowing us to see how we are doing on the ward, whether improvements we’ve made are effective, and so on. As Matrons we try to make ourselves as available as possible, and this is another way to increase our visibility, and pick up any concerns from our patients there and then.

“Although NHS Change Day is about one day, out of it we will be ensuring that the Matrons’ tea rounds are not just a one-off.

“The Ward Managers and other Matrons are very supportive of this idea, including at our community hospitals in Wiltshire and we want to roll it out there too.”