Why?
A new report has come from University of Southampton looking at cost of malnutrition of patients. This is something Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust are all too aware of and as part of their Nutrition Steering Group, working with dieticians, clinicians, chefs and nurses, identified protected mealtimes as a serious issue that needed to be addressed. It was concluded that baseline data needed to be collected to ascertain what needed to change and subsequent to an audit, it was found that accurate records were needed to evidence that patients were left undisturbed during mealtimes, that meals were actually being eaten and staff were educated on the importance of monitoring this.
A new food chart was piloted on a few of the wards before being rolled out across the hospital with video identified as a beneficial way to educate and train the nursing staff.
How?
With the help of ward staff, scripts were prepared and filming took place on the actual ward using real staff and patients during mealtimes. It was felt that using real life situations would help staff relate to the content.
What?
The training videos are available on the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust intranet site. A nurse watches the video and then answer a series of questions relating to the content to ensure and record that they have understood what was said.
Evaluation
The project will be revisited in a few months to monitor the effectiveness of the training and subsequent evaluation of protected mealtimes.
Nutrition and Hydration Week
We are delighted to have our protected mealtimes video featured as a case study on the Nutrition and Hydration Week website, a collaboration between the Hospital Caterers Association, National Association of Care Catering and Patient Safety Domain NHS England Nutrition and Hydration Week which has now become a truly global event.
Their mission is to create a global movement that will reinforce and focus, energy, activity and engagement on nutrition and hydration as an important part of quality care, experience and safety improvement in health and social care settings.
What can you do?
Protected Mealtimes is just one in the series of ‘Care of the Elderly‘ videos that you can purchase, personalise with your own logo and contact details and start using within days. Take a look at the videos available and then refer to our bulk pricing options should you wish to purchase 5 or more. Or if you have an idea for a topic not covered in our series then please give us a call on 01626 833937 to discuss production opportunities.
