Heartbeat: May 2019

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Helpforce mobility scheme sees new training to support patients on D43 CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Twenty eager volunteers gathered to take part in new training to help patients stay active and mobile whilst staying on ward D43 at Sheldon block, City Hospital. The training is part of our volunteering scheme, that has had funding from national volunteering organisation Helpforce, and has already been running on OPAU at Sandwell and our assessment units at City. Jane Burton, Senior Ward Charge Nurse on D43 told <strong>Heartbeat</strong>: “This is significant as we are educating volunteers and improving the service provided, which helps to improve both ourselves and them.” The training also gave volunteers an understanding of what to expect in certain situations. Colleagues brought along some of the games and reminiscence equipment used to help patients with dementia whilst they are in Our volunteers attended training to support patient mobility hospital. Sarah Oley, Advanced Physiotherapist in Acute Medicine said: “This is a very exciting project that we started in OPAU in Sandwell, and at AMU in City. Now we are continuing it in D43 too. The idea is that the volunteers are here to support colleagues and patients. “The volunteers are so compassionate and their readiness to help means a lot to us.” Yunus Hussain, Volunteer on D47 ward added: “I found the training session very informative and educational. It was a really positive experience as I enjoy engaging with other volunteers who are doing similar roles to me; it is nice knowing that they are there with the same motivation, which is to help.” Free books handed out to patients on World Book Night To mark World Book Night our library and knowledge service handed out free copies of the novel Close Enough To Touch to more than a hundred inpatients at Sandwell, City and Rowley Regis Hospitals. The event is held every year on 23 April, and is organised by the Reading Agency, which also donated the books. The library and knowledge service joined forces with the volunteer service to read extracts of the novel to inpatients so they could have a taste of the story. “It was a very successful day for us, as the team travelled around the hospitals and managed to reach a lot of patients,” said Preeti Puligari, Library Services Manager. “We were very grateful to the Reading Agency who supplied 160 copies of the book and they were very well received by the inpatients. “It was a really nice gesture and also something a little bit different. It meant that patients had something to start reading on World Book Night. Such Stacey Richards, Assistant Librarian reads to patients at Sandwell Hospital to mark World Book Night. schemes will enable us to tackle ‘loneliness’ on the wards and encourage ‘reading for life’.” Volunteer, Brian Guest, who had been based at Sandwell Hospital, said: “It was a really uplifting day and I enjoyed meeting the different patients. “They seemed to enjoy the reading and were very thankful to us when we gave them a copy of the book. Some were very interested and said they would read the book. I even bought a copy for my wife afterwards as the book sounded like a great read.” The Mobile and Home Library Service from Sandwell Council took its van to Rowley Regis Hospital and several patients signed up to the free delivery service which follows the patient from hospital to care home and finally to their own home. Nicola Ager, Service Development Librarian added: “The patients were interested in the home library service and were very pleased to receive a copy of the book.” Volunteer Liz Powell, who also read to inpatients, said: "It was very interesting to take part in the World Book Night session, and I’m proud to be part of an NHS service that offers other experiences for patients, alongside excellent healthcare.” To take this forward on all the wards, the library services will be exploring the use of audio books so that it can benefit those patients who are poorly and unable to read. 8
Hands on for hand hygiene Infection control nurses have once again been getting hands on with hand hygiene this month as they took to the wards to reinforce the message that clean hands save lives. Following in the footsteps of the World Health Organisation’s annual Hand Hygiene day, the team armed with an innovative Surewash training system took to the wards of City Hospital to challenge colleagues to test their skills at washing their hands. The state–of–the–art Surewash system uses camera tracking to scan your hand washing technique offering advice and guidance on how to improve. And for those colleagues who are competitive the system lets your show off your hand washing skills by washing your hands against the clock to see if you can beat the record time set by colleagues. To find out more about the work of the infection control team and the use of Surewash, <strong>Heartbeat</strong> spoke to Infection Prevention and Control Nurse Advisor, Susan Ward. Senior Ward Sister, Joy Walker uses the Surewash handwashing training system She said: “Today we’re trying to promote and reinforce the importance of good hand hygiene in healthcare and in particular the role this plays in stopping the incidence and spread of healthcare associated infections. As an infection control team we’re well aware that as much as we mandate that colleagues wash their hands, unless they do so effectively we are still likely to have infections being transmitted. The Surewash system aims to ensure that colleagues are trained to effectively wash their hands and we’re able to do this both through training and through its assessments.” CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS When the team stopped off on ward D25, a queue quickly grew as colleagues took their turns to take the challenge with Matron, Jo Mansell commenting: “This is a great way to engage colleagues, it’s quick, fun and helps us prove that staff are well trained and know what they are doing when it comes to hand hygiene.” Along with effective hand washing, colleagues are advised to follow the 5 moments of hand washing to ensure that they wash their hands when necessary: 1. Before touching a patient 2. Before cleaning/aseptic procedures 3. After body fluid exposure/risk 4. After touching a patient 5. After touching patient surroundings For more information on infection prevention and control, contact the team on ext. 5900. Kiranjit Phanasan – face mask fit tester extraordinaire D17 ward are breathing easy following the actions of a determined ward manager. On learning that her ward was particularly low on compliance with infection control face mask fit testing, Acting Ward Manager, Kiranjit Phanasan took it in to her own hands to make amends and bring the ward back up to standard. Sharing the story of D17’s rise to IPC compliance, Acting Matron, Tracy Weston said, “D17 has had a number of staff changes and with this we found that there were quite a few colleagues who were out of date with their fit testing. As soon as I made Kiranjit aware of this she took charge of the situation, and leading by example she enrolled herself in to the fit testing course. “Following completing the fit testing training, Kiranjit borrowed one of the fit testing machines and set to work testing every team member on D17 until they were all tested.” Whilst most people would stop here, Kiranjit then went on to fit test other gynaecological areas including the emergency gynae assessment areas, the Macmillan CNS team, doctors in training, registrars, surgical care practitioners and anyone else she could get her hands on a fit a mask to. Singing the praises of Kiranjit, Matron, Tracy Weston continued, “This was a tremendous effort and achievement by Kiranjit to not only ensure her own ward was safe but to then take the time to help other departments too. Congratulating Kiranjit on her hard work, Infection Prevention and Control Nurse Advisor, Kas Aheer said, “Well done Kiranjit for taking the lead for ensuring the safety of colleagues, we’re continuing to train more and more fit testers so that we can ensure everyone has had the opportunity to be fit tested.” If you would like to be a face mask fit tester, training is available through the infection control team, contact ext 5900. Kiranjit Phanasan took it in to her own hands to ensure colleagues were fit tested 9
Page 1 and 2: May 2019 Sandwell and West Birmingh
Page 3 and 4: Working together to get the most fr
Page 5 and 6: New era for GP surgery as it joins
Page 7: The clock is ticking - new parking
Page 11 and 12: Corrine’s marathon run to help en
Page 13 and 14: Crowds get spring in their steps at
Page 16 and 17: CORPORATE AND GENERAL NEWS Shout ou
Page 18 and 19: Neurophysiology are future proof wi
Page 20 and 21: Safety and efficiency scores nation
Page 22 and 23: Trust trains STAR carers to help pa
Page 24 and 25: Pulse News in brief from around our
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Page 28: Events diary June 2019 EVENT DATE T

Heartbeat: May 2019

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