100DEVELOPMENT OF RECREATIONAL THERAPY ROLE WITHIN THE ELDERLY CARE DEPARTMENT

Abstract

Topic: We have created a Recreational Coordinator role for older patients within secondary care. The role is entirely separate from the auxiliary nursing/health care workers and is not included in overall patient care numbers. It is acknowledged that inpatient stays can lead to mental and physical deconditioning. NICE guidelines (December 2015) detail how one-to-one and group-based schemes promote independence in community-based work however there has been no dedicated approach within hospital care. The concept within elderly medicine was identified when one of our consultants' children was a paediatric inpatient. She observed the role of the ward play-therapists and proposed a similar model should greatly benefit older patients who typically have less access to technology, visitors and distractions. Intervention(s): Development of a Recreational Coordinator role to engage with all patients on the elderly wards offering individual or group activities, including arts/crafts, sing-a-longs, chair-based exercises, manicures and reminiscence. Group work includes themed sessions such as mock sea-side trips and films. Improvement: Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from staff, relatives and patients. The staff identified that patient experience and engagement with their surrounding has improved. In a patient satisfaction survey including over 50 responses to date, 98% report the experience as extremely positive. Our recreational coordinators have won awards locally and regionally for their work. Discussion(s): We feel that the patient centred care that is already standard for paediatric patients should be available to our older population. By utilising a similar role in our elderly in-patient wards we have improved the patients' experience and hope to reduce mental and physical deconditioning. We cost-effectively initiated the model by redeploying vacancy monies and developing an apprentice role. Additional costs are minimal and mainly involve art/craft materials. The main challenge was recruitment of suitable apprentices for the role, possessing the confidence to engage with frail patients. As a future development we would like to further understand the effect of our model on potentially reducing deconditioning and length of stay. However, from a patient centred perspective, we feel there is enormous value in adopting the model within secondary care nationally.