Page 11 - HA Convention 2016 [Abstracts (Day 2)]

Symposiums HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2016

S12.3 Going an Extra Mile for Staff 14:30 Room 221

Building and Sustaining a Caring Cluster
Chung TK1, Ho PYB 1, Chan SP 1, Tong CM 1, Hau WL 2, Wong TW 3, Lam KY4, Cheng MYA 5, Iu TLA 6, Chan CL 7, Chan WM 8,
Chan YH 9
1Central Nursing Division, New Territories East Cluster, Hospital Authority, 2School of Midwifery, Prince of Wales Hospital,
3Department of Surgery, Prince of Wales Hospital, 4Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Prince of Wales Hospital,
5Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, 6Medicine and Geriatrics Department,
Tai Po Hospital, 7Department of Medicine, North District Hospital, 8Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, Shatin Hospital,
9Infirmary Unit, Cheshire Home, Shatin, Hong Kong

Introduction

Caring is the core component of healthcare services. Both caring for staff and patients are the prime concern of New
Territories East Cluster (NTEC). Staff caring programmes such as one-nurse-one-plan training and development programme,
nurse companion programme and caring forum have been promoted for years. On the other hand, every patient in hospital
deserves to be comforted. Traditionally, the concept of patient comfort has a firm association in nursing responsibilities since
nursing has been regarded for providing direct basic care to patients. To better understand the effectiveness of the past
efforts and explore the key elements for planning and sustaining a caring cluster, two surveys were conducted separately in
2012 and 2014 to explore nurses’ and patients’ perspectives on these aspects.

Objectives

To inspect, consolidate and sustain nurses’ and patients’ caring cultures programmes in NTEC hospitals.

Methodologies Wednesday, 4 May

For nurses’ perspective, an exploratory study with questionnaire was used to explore nurses’ perception of the caring culture.
To increase its validity, the questionnaire was developed according to a well-established caring model. All nurses in NTEC
were invited to share their views in March 2012. For patients’ perspective, a structured interview of inpatients by using self-
developed questionnaire was performed. There were 65 pupil nurses and 22 summer volunteers recruited as the interviewers
in this study. The period of the study was scheduled in August 2014. Based on the survey findings, initiatives were established
to build and sustain the caring culture.

Results and Improvement

From nurses’ feedback, 2,259 nurses were included in the study and the response rate was 68%. The top three caring
dimensions identified by subjects were “knowing”, “acting together” and “promoting quality”; and the top three caring
activities perceived were “sponsorship for training”, “official release for in-service training” and “exemption of night duty for
nurses with age greater than 50”. Positive rating on caring culture and job satisfaction were noted. Qualitative comments
were interpreted in light of “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. For our nurses, their primary concerns were physiological and
safety needs such as duty and leave, salary and sponsorship, manpower and wellbeing issues. Results would have high
implications for cluster management to plan for subsequent caring activities. Hence, some initiatives such as minimum hours
of authorised release for study day were introduced with regular monitoring.

From patients’ feedback, 1,253 interviews were done. Personal hygiene was the highest concern for patients. A followup
stock take on basic nursing care was conducted and the areas for improvement were identified. Standardisation of service
pledge in the frequency of personal hygiene such as mouth care and body cleansing was established.

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