For me, one of the most vital and obvious areas we can make a difference no matter where we work is mealtimes. Whether that be a hospital, a care home, a school or working with people in the community, food is a social activity and can be the source of many service improvements. If someone is lonely a sociable meal can help make friends, if someone is unwell a meal can give them much needed energy! If someone is a carer and their loved one is admitted to hospital, it may be one thing they can do to help. However it’s also the source of many complaints!
How many of you have stepped onto a ward as a staff member, a visitor or a patient and seen a sign reading “protected mealtimes-no visiting during these hours”? Or watched someone slumped in the bed struggling to eat? Being given a cold meal or a meal they didn’t order due to admissions and discharges? Eating in the bed space whilst someone uses a bed pan behind the curtain? Or given a children’s beaker with a lid and a straw to drink their tea in case they spill it? One student told me the ward rang a bell asking relatives to leave at mealtimes then didn’t have enough staff to help people feed themselves who needed it. It makes you question what protected meal times are protecting them from?! Was this the original intention?
There are many service improvements we can make if we listen to the service user experience. Nottingham University Hospitals have come up with the following:
Raise the importance of food and drinks
Promote nutrition and hydration as everyone’s responsibility
Ensure that patients’ mealtimes are undisturbed from non essential tasks such as bed changes and healthcare interventions
Encourage staff to focus their activity on helping those who have difficulty feeding themselves and monitoring the amount of food and drink being consumed
Stop all non-urgent activity during mealtimes. Encourages those staff who are not involved with helping at mealtimes to leave the ward
Allows relatives and carers to participate in mealtime care when appropriate
This could be taken further. How about a mealtime champion? Or inviting people to eat at tables in a social manner with their visitors or fellow service users if they would like to, or if it’s safe then how about nice china cups instead of beakers. Could we identify who needs support by giving them a red tray or a yellow jug lid so we know who needs encouragement to drink? Could we change the way we order food to ensure people get what they want when they want? Not something a previous patient ordered or a slice of toast when we’ve sat in A&E till 2am starving! We could even just go round before meals and make sure everyone is sat up comfortably with clean hands and a clean eating surface.
See if you can think of anything else. What about developing a lunch club for a group of people in the community who need support, or cooking lessons for those who need health promotion advice? Or making sure staff actually get a meal break away from their desk or workspace! Staff wellbeing impacts upon the service user experience too.
Can SHU make a difference? 