Drum Ward

Team Journey

Royal Cornhill Hospital, as a whole, has consistently scored low in the “we know who senior management are” question.  In an attempt to address this the senior team within Mental Health & Learning Disabilities (MHLDS) have held ‘road shows’ in the staff lounge at various times of the day/week where members of the senior team make themselves available.  Unfortunately these road shows were poorly attended due to various factors.

In an effort to follow up on this, the Service Manager and Head of MHLDS made regular ward ‘walk arounds’; this was useful in that it quickly established that some ward staff did not know who the senior management team were.

Following this, the Senior Team, after consultation with colleagues, decided to place a ‘who’s who’ board in the staff lounge. This has photographs of all the senior managers from Lead Nurses to the Business Manager with a role description against each.  It is hoped that this small measure will improve the score going forward.

Another weak area highlighted by the feedback was in relation to communication and staff feeling they were not involved in decision making.  This is seen as fairly complex and an easy way to address it needed to be established; therefore, after discussion with staff, the senior team are sending out a ‘Survey Monkey’ survey to ask Staff how they would like to be communicated with by Senior management (in addition to communications via Email).

The survey will be the one single question with options to select from; the options are:

Announced Management Drop in to Wards and staff areas

Unannounced Management Drop in’s (various shifts)

Monthly Management Surgery – e.g. senior management available in Staff Lounge for discussions

Some ward areas have scored poorly regarding experiences as individuals, therefore the senior team has engaged in the ‘Joy at Work’ programme in Drum Ward, with a view to rolling out into the other wards.  Joy at work looks at how staff are motivated, inspired and encouraged to deliver their best, how they are supported with their health and well-being, how they are empowered to make improvements and how their efforts are recognised and celebrated. 

Drum Ward now have a “which emotion are you” board with the pictures of all emotions in the film ‘Inside Out’.  For example Joy, Anger and Disgust.  Staff members can choose to put a character next to their name.  This is then discussed on a 1:1 basis with the Senior Charge Nurse thereby creating an opportunity to discuss.  This could take the form of ‘what has gone well’; ‘what could have gone better’; ‘why do you feel angry and ‘how can we improve going forward’.