Heartbeat: Conference shares methods to improve dignity in care

April 29, 2020

Our medicine and emergency group played host to a dignity in care conference back in February.

The conference had over 120 delegates in attendance from both clinical and nonclinical backgrounds including nurses, midwives, portering and security.

Julie Thompson, Group Director of Nursing for Medicine and Emergency Care helped facilitate the all-day event at our Sandwell Education Centre. The aim of the session was to share methods to help improve dignity in care across the organisation. Presenters at the event included Dr Moe Thaw Oo, Consultant Geriatrician and Physician, as well as Helen Mallard, Lead Nurse.

Dr Oo believes that we must ensure that dignity in care is equally applied and consistent for all patients, in particular, our elderly and more vulnerable patients.

He said: “We face many challenges with our more senior patients, such as more complex needs and even language barriers.

Even with these challenges, we must ensure we offer consistency in care and make sure the dignity of our patients is at the forefront of our minds. This will ensure they receive the best possible care from us.”

Helen and her team have applied the ABCD model in our emergency department (ED) in regards to dignity in the care they offer. This method focuses on attitude, behaviour, compassion and dialogue. She said, “Every patient that attends ED deserves the same standards of care. I always encourage everyone to really think about behaviours and gestures as this can easily impact on a patient’s experience, especially in ED.

She went on to say, “Compassion and dialogue are equally important. This is why we think that one of the quick wins to this is caring, showing empathy and simply treating others how you would wish to be treated.”

Following on from the success of the event, the Trust has seen well over 200 people sign up to become dignity ambassadors. “I have been overwhelmed with the positive response after the dignity in care event. It’s amazing to have so many dignity ambassadors from a variety of multi-disciplinary teams,” said Julie.

She added, “A dignity ambassador is someone that upholds the standards for dignity which is treating people with respect. This involves being a patient advocate and feeding back within our dignity forums. To have such a large number of people in these types of roles will mean that our patients will be treated with kindness, respect and compassion. It will ultimately result in better care.”