Hospital nurses work towards direct care

NURSING teams at James Paget University Hospital are working towards spending more time on direct patient care. They have been empowered to refine working practices and cut through administration to free up more time on the frontline.

NURSING teams at James Paget University Hospital are working towards spending more time on direct patient care.

They have been empowered to refine working practices and cut through administration to free up more time on the frontline.

And that has the potential to help patients recover more quickly, by receiving more personalised care, support and reassurance from nurses.

Around 180 nurses in six wards are taking part in the Releasing Time to Care scheme, which encourages them to use their expert knowledge and experience to design how the Trust delivers care to patients.

The scheme analyses the main tasks taking place on a ward - such as medication and meal rounds - and these are then redesigned to ensure they are carried out more efficiently by staff and are more patient-focused.

Nick Coveney, director of nursing and patient services at the Trust, said: “The scheme has many advantages, including improved patient dignity, reduced risk of infection and improved patient safety. Our nurses have more time to spend directly with patients.”

Nurse Claire Ward, who is leading the project at the Trust, said: “As nurses, we want to ensure medication rounds are managed without interruption, meal rounds deliver good nutrition to our patients and ward environments are organised in such a way that we can ensure time away from our patients is kept to a minimum.”

The scheme is being run nationally by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.