Posted on: 7 July 2020
In September 2019 the team at Nile Ward started a QI project to reduce violent incidents on the ward by 30% before the end of November 2020, as part of a Trustwide quality priority to improve patient and staff safety.
For the Nile Ward Team it was important to explore change ideas that would help reduce violent incidents in a less restrictive way. One of their change ideas was to introduce more community activities, these were fitness training sessions, gardening sessions and bringing the community together for events, like their Eid celebration.
Nile ward has been receiving the highest form of flattery, imitation, as five other wards have now implemented one of Nile Ward’s successful change ideas. In Nile Ward the Risk Assessment Tool is used to assess the level of treatment needed to calm patients if they become violently distressed. The change idea Nile Ward implemented was to introduce the Risk Assessment tool on handover sheets. This meant at every staff rotation, team members can update the risk assessment tool regularly, closely monitoring a patient’s progress and allowing more effective treatment measures that are specific for the patients’ needs at the time.
Since implementing their change ideas, Nile Ward has managed to reduce the level of violence and aggression by over 30% across a sustained period of time. Claudia Taylor, Clinical Team Leader on Nile Ward said “Staff have been feeling more confident on the ward and patients have enjoyed participating in the project and having their voices heard. From taking part in staff meetings and getting feedback on change ideas, this QI project has been co-produced between staff and patients from the start.”
Dr Mehtab Rahman, Consultant Psychiatrist from Nile Ward said, “Bringing the community together for Eid had a surprising effect on people with severe mental illnesses. Celebrations like this can help patients in intensive care psychiatric wards, like Nile Ward, become less violent.”
Embarking on a QI project can provide its challenges but the global pandemic has presented a unique challenge our services and wards didn’t expect. Many QI projects have understandably been paused in order to join the countrywide response to Covid-19. Astonishingly, Nile Ward has managed to continue with their QI project despite the backdrop of the pandemic. Change ideas were revisited and altered to ensure they can be carried out safely, for example indoor community activities were moved outdoors to allow social distancing.
To learn more about this project, their progress and all the change ideas implemented, please visit Life QI and search for Jameson: Nile Ward.
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