Two teams from the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) have received honours for their work improving patient safety.
The diversional therapists helping patients on the Older Adults wards at the Royal Stoke University Hospital won the Patient Safety Pilot Project of the Year at last week’s HSJ Patient Safety Awards for their use of bespoke activities to maintain mobility.
Meanwhile, staff in UHNM’s Critical Care Unit took home the Harnessing a Human Factors Approach to Improve Patient Safety award after adopting a new safety management system to identify and reduce risks for staff and patients.
The HSJ Patient Safety Awards help drive improvements in culture and quality across the NHS.
Critical Care Matron Jill Bogucki said: “I am incredibly proud of everyone involved within the working groups and the wider team, we have truly special people working in Critical Care that are simply committed to improving and driving forward innovation.”
Matron for Older Adults Lee-ann Boardman said: “The Diversional Therapist role has been pivotal in providing an environment for our patients whereby activities are at hand to promote patient independence, enhance their mobility and to encourage and assist their recovery.”
She added: “Just to have been shortlisted for the two awards was amazing, for our team go through the experience, but to have actually won was phenomenal. It shows the impact the Diversional Therapists are having, not only from a data perspective, but also the experience of patients and staff, because the staff love their jobs. The team don’t realise how good they are, and impact they are having, and I hope that this national recognition is helping them to realise how fantastic they are.”
Diversional Therapy team in Older Adults were also shortlisted in the Improving Care for Older People Initiative of the Year category.
