NIHR CLAHRC for South Yorkshire

1. Involving volunteers in getting patients’ views of hospital mealtimes Part of the Enhancing the Quality of Oral Nutritional Support (EQONS) Project National Institute for Health Research NIHR CLAHRCfor South Yorkshire Background The Department of Health’s policy on volunteering within health and social care services (DH 2010) outlines a vision for promotion of volunteering. The Sheffield Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust has an established and effectively managed volunteer service. Volunteer services are seen as making an invaluable contribution to the enhancement and improvement of our services (Cash 2010).The EQONSproject is about the improvement of oral nutrition in hospital. The aim is to enhance the quality of oral nutrition support provided by the multi-disciplinary team to adult patients with long term conditions through the implementation of a nutrition screening tool (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool +) and associated care guidelines.One of the objectives of this implementation project involves capturing the patients experience of nutritional care in hospital. Involving volunteers Patient and public involvement will be key to developing a service which directly reflects the requirements of the patients. Engaging the volunteer members of the public in a project provides focused, tangible outcomes and a structure to facilitate patient public involvement (Sykes & Goodwin 2007).Volunteers at STH participate in data collection for many projects. They receive training on how to approach patients, gain verbal consent and deal with arising issues. Two information sessions were run to discuss the EQONS project, its objectives and the data collection. The project team facilitator then kept in touch with the volunteer manager to progress the data collection and pick up on any problems. “This direct face to face contact in the study is also an invaluable and unique experience for volunteers. Providing insight into nutritional needs of patients and the volunteer feeding programme “ Andrew Timms, Support Services Manager, STH “Volunteers are so dedicated. Without them we would not be able to achieve what we do” Jane Elliott, Volunteer Manager, STH Capturing the patients’ experience The volunteers are collecting information via a questionnaire from patients on their view of hospital mealtimes; the aim is to collect 225 responses from 9 wards involved in the project. The questionnaire is part of Age UK’s Hungry to be heard campaign where all responses are anonymous. Short field notes are also taken to capture personal views and relevant information that cannot be entered into the questionnaire. The volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and can bring a wealth of experience potentially giving fresh perspectives that could be missed by professionals. The questionnaire will be sent back to Age UK to be analysed. The results are sent back to the Patient and Public Partnership Dept at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. The results can then be used by Age UK, the Trust and the project. The field notes are analysed by the project team. The involvement of volunteers gives added value to the development of care and services (DH 2010) In keeping with this vision the volunteers in this project are making a valuable contribution to the improvement of practice Preliminary findings from the field notes (based on 54 responses, 24% of anticipated responses) Food and drink:Most responses in this area, with the most predominant relating to the quality of food followed by choice then timings and presentation Staff: All comments positive indicating that staff were either friendly or helpful. One comment about staff having “no time” General Comments:Again focused on the quality of food, choice and timings. One about the food “wasted” and one on social aspects ‘it would be nice to have someone to chat to.’ References Cash, A. 2010 in Department of Health 2010 Volunteering Involving people and communities in delivering and developing Health & Social Care Service Department of Health 2010 Volunteering Involving people & communities in delivering and developing health and social care services Sykes, C., Goodwin, W. 2007 Assessing Patient, Carer and Public Involvement Quality in Primary Care 15 45 -52T This project forms part of the NIHR CLAHRC for South Yorkshire: to find out more please contact gill.turner@shu.ac.uk, sara.laker@sth.nhs.uk, andrew.timms@sth.nhs.uk or kate.gerrish@sth.nhs.uk or go to www.clahrc-sy.nihr.ac.uk