Digital Posters•

45 Improving the initial care received by families admitted to the haematology and oncology wards at Great Ormond Street Hospital for a new diagnosis of childhood cancer

•.

...

Abstract

Background Working on Lion Ward, one of the haematology/oncology wards within Great Ormond Street, I regularly care for families admitted for a new diagnosis of childhood cancer. Therefore, when I was successful in obtaining a place on the Chief Nurse Fellow Programme, part of which involved developing a quality improvement project, I identified the aim of improving and standardising the initial care received by these families. They will often require recurrent inpatient admissions throughout their child’s treatment, and I identified that there is a potential lack of consistency regarding information delivery relating to the support available, and practicalities of spending a considerable time as an inpatient.

Method I obtained baseline data and feedback from key stakeholders, including ward-based staff to identify the core information for the welcome pack, and worked with Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) to identify any recurring themes particularly regarding information sharing and practicalities of long term/recurrent admissions. I then liaised with the patient experience team to identify existing data from the Friends Family Test (FFT), thus enabling me to develop a report outlining recurrent themes from these various sources, and subsequently shape the contents of the welcome pack.

Results Following recent implementation of the Welcome Pack, feedback has been incredibly positive, with lots of verbal feedback relaying how the document has been beneficial to them during new admissions. Feedback identified that the colourful design, concise text, and user-friendly images meant there was a higher engagement in the welcome pack, including amongst patients themselves.

Conclusion Overall, the project has been beneficial in supporting families with information regarding inpatient admissions on the Haematology/Oncology wards, standardising the information received upon admission. This therefore informs and empowers the families, as well as providing a guideline for nursing staff when introducing and orienting new families to the ward.