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| Ensuring regular ward rounds |
| Written by Communications Team |
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Last week David Cameron emphasised the importance of hospitals going back to basics, highlighting hourly ward rounds by nursing staff as a particular example. Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust launched hourly rounding last year on all their wards, which has made a real difference to patient care. Matron Justine Hillier explains more. “Early last year we decided to introduce hourly nursing rounds on our wards – which we’ve called Care Rounding - starting with our Medical Admissions Unit. This literally means that once an hour, between 7 am and 10 pm, members of our nursing staff proactively visit every patient on their ward, checking that they are comfortable and making sure they have everything they need. So for example, we ask if they have had enough to eat, see if they are thirsty, do they need the bathroom, are they are in pain and so on.  Matron Justine Hillier with 94 year old patient Mollie Lacey from Englefield Green, who is very happy and appreciative of the regular care she is receiving from staff on the Medical Admissions Unit at St Peter’s Hospital. It’s not rocket science, but by doing this in a concerted and organised way we are not only improving basic care, we are also helping our nurses work more effectively, pre-empting what our patients need which also means the call bells are ringing less. Our nurses find they are getting to know their patients more quickly and our patients are certainly more assured that they will be well looked after. Overnight we do two hourly rounds and all the care we undertake is recorded in the individual patient care record. As a Matron, this means I can pick up any patient’s notes and see exactly what their nursing care has been over the last 24 hours or so, which really helps for good continuity of care.” Chief Nurse at the Trust, Suzanne Rankin, adds: “Improving the care we give our patients is one of our top priorities and there is no doubt Care Rounding is making a big difference on our wards. Proactively managing patients this way has helped to significantly reduce the number of falls our patients experience here, particularly amongst our older patients, as they no longer need to get out of bed on their own to get things, or go to the bathroom and so on. We are also seeing a big improvement in the way we manage pain by addressing this on a regular basis. Care Rounding has been introduced hand in hand with a number of other important initiatives such as our ward sisters’ development programme - to help our ward managers gain the skills they need to manage and take more responsibility for their individual ward areas - and our Living our Values training programme – aimed at every single member of staff – which takes a very in-depth look at how our individual actions have a direct impact on patients. Of course there is always room for improvement and we must never stand still, but some of these most essential elements of care are now firmly back on the agenda and giving real results.” |
| Last Updated ( Friday, 13 January 2012 17:14 ) |
