Delivering improvements on the fundamentals of care
Fundamentals of Care has been a fantastic collaborative effort between 21 wards in Aintree and the Royal that has engaged a range of ward colleagues, specialist corporate teams, the Quality Improvement Team and has been supported by senior leadership teams.
The 21 wards were split across three topic areas, Falls, Nutrition and Hydration and Pressure Ulcers and colleagues started by attending launch events in June 2023 and then subsequent progress updates where they have come together to provide peer support and share their learning.
The Quality Improvement Team have helped the wards to follow a QI approach to understand their barriers and support the teams to test changes to make continuous improvements.
As well as the work undertaken by the cohort areas, the wards at Broadgreen have also been working hard on their own improvement projects within Fundamentals of Care. An event took place on Thursday 16 November where all wards were in attendance to share the exciting work they have been focusing on, which has already made a real positive impact on patient and staff care at the site.
The cohort wards have made some great achievements, well done!
- Falls cohort – reduced their falls by 42%
- Nutrition and Hydration cohort - improved their Nutritional assessments (MUST) by 50%
- Pressure Ulcer cohort – reduced their pressure ulcers by 55%
Fiona Murphy MBE, Director of Nursing for Corporate Services, said: “The cohort ward improvements have been remarkable. Each area was feeling overwhelmed at the start of our improvement journey to being totally engaged. The tests of change are being developed and delivered on each area at pace and inclusive of all staff. The ability of our expert teams through real time coaching, education and support has been exceptional. The key to the successes noted has been that support in collaboration with every cohort ward area. I look forward to rolling out our improvements Trust-wide.”
Hannah Jones, Quality Improvement Lead who has been working with 6D, said: “It has been a great few months working with the cohort wards across the trust as part of the Fundamentals of Nursing Care Programme. We have used QI methodology to understand our challenges and have empowered the people closest to the delivery of care to develop solutions and implement tests of change to improve. As a result, we have seen a reduction in harm across the cohort. The success of this programme is due to the buy-in and engagement of ward colleagues - they are making such a massive difference to the quality of care we provide.”
