Is there a relationship between a positive work culture and having space to reflect about your care
Promoting a Positive Work Culture - Projects
Lothian Y1 Project
In Lothian, 28 nurses from across acute, continuing care and care home settings have been meeting every six weeks since October 2007. Our last meeting was at the beginning of July 2008. Working in three facilitated groups, we used active learning techniques to explore care through the lens of the five themes: managing transitions, creating community, maintaining identity, supporting a good end of life and sharing decision-making.
We were interested in exploring this question: “If ways are found within existing work patterns to support staff to share learning and experience of their work, then does this lead to the development of more person-centred (relationship-centred) care practice?”
The first thing we did was a values clarification exercise (see below). This is the vision we formulated:
“We believe that by sharing knowledge and experience and supporting and valuing each other we can make an active commitment to improving care. Through encouraging positive behaviours we aim to create unity of purpose across different sectors.”
These two statements were generated by those who attended our first meeting - click here for more information.
These were the outcomes we hoped for:
- The creation of practice development projects both within and across care settings which draw on the experience, expertise and resource available across these sectors:
- Recording implications for practice of the work we do together.
- Identifying what changes could be taken forward and by whom (e.g. by members of the group or by others).
- Recording what happens to these.
- Joined up thinking in relation to values based care and how those values translate into care practice across these sectors.
- The work we do attempts to make a direct link between our personal values, the values of relationship-based care (or person-centred care) and what happens in practice. We will record a) what we learn about the gaps b) what we could do to address those gaps.
- Networking across sectors.
- Recording the learning we gain from networking within and across our three groups (does it make a difference?)
- Recording how these connections endure and develop.
- Opportunities to provide greater support for learning & development among staff to be identified and capitalised on.
- Evaluating for ourselves the exercises we try out.
- Identifying how they could be used inside care settings, and, where they are, what happens.
- Gathering information about the impact on our care settings of involvement in this project (what might that impact look like?)
- Higher morale among workforce as reflected in decreased absence levels and staff turnover.
- Gather local data about absence levels/staff turnover.
- Reduction in complaints from service users.
- Gather local data about any impact on experience of care of older people (patients/residents/relatives).
We met early July to share experience and impact of this work.
So what happened?
Those involved described many positive benefits from the experience of networking together, of having space to think and reflect and of being introduced to new ideas and tools which could then be applied back at work. Hear from those involved by going to the shared space.
If you need to register with the E-library first, click here.
When you are registered, click here.
Click here to read the end of Year 1 Evaluation for this Project
Our next step is to take forward two PD projects. These will be based on:
- patient passports
- resources to encourage more feedback among staff in care settings
