A BSUH healthcare play specialist has sparked off quite the social media splash after being selected as the first curator of the year for a new Twitter feed, ‘@NHS’, managed by NHS England.
Each week a different person involved with the NHS, typically a member of staff or a patient, takes the reins and is solely responsible for the @NHS Twitter account to share their NHS story.
Through the @NHS Twitter feed, Amy engaged with people across the country and beyond to shine the spotlight on the importance of play in hospitals and to stimulate ideas of how best to make further improvements.
Amy said: “We have a phenomenal play centre and sensory room at The Alex and I also spend a lot of time out on the wards. We use therapeutic play and distraction techniques to support patients and their families throughout the hospital journey, with the aim of minimising distress as much as possible.”
One of the ways in which the Play Team and colleagues across Children’s Services are working to ensure continuous improvement and informed change is through patient feedback. They ask patients and families what’s ‘tops’ and what’s ‘pants’ and feedback is displayed on a ‘washing line’ of paper cuts-outs of tops and pants.
Amy said: “I feel privileged to work alongside fantastic and dedicated colleagues in the play team, as well as multi-disciplinary colleagues right across the hospital.
“I am really proud that Children’s Services has recently been rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, and even more proud that that’s not slowed anything down!
“We’re always looking for new ways to ensure that patients and their families receive the best possible care by teaming together and working closely with partners and charities including Rockinghorse, Wishing Well and Theodora Giggle Doctors. Their support is invaluable, to say the least.”
Amy’s 100+ tweets across just five days reached over 255,000 people. Follow the BSUH NHS Trust Twitter feed ‘@BSUH_NHS’ and ‘like’ the ‘Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals’ Facebook page to stay tuned with updates from across the Trust and to join the conversation.
