Occupational Therapy News OTnews July 2019 | Page 32

FEATURE SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
The dining room project
Kelly Hiscox explains how a service improvement project has focused on redeveloping
the dining room environment to enable social and rehabilitation opportunities and
empower patients to be more independent at mealtimes
© GettyImages/CasarsaGuru
T
Right: Kelly Hiscox helping a patient who has reduced range
of movement to feed themselves using adapted cutlery
he Central England Rehabilitation Unit (CERU)
at Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital
provides intensive neurorehabilitation across
its two wards, for inpatients that have had a
traumatic or an acquired brain injury.
Each ward has its own dining room and patients who
are able to access the dining room are encouraged to use
this environment for mealtimes.
A brain injury impacts people’s engagement in
occupations in a variety of ways. A patient with
complex needs, such as additional physical, cognitive,
communication or eating and drinking needs, can find
mealtimes challenging.
An occupational therapist’s unique and diverse skills
means that they are ideally placed to assess a patient and
their occupation holistically, offering strategies, tools and
environmental advice to maximise their engagement and
experience at mealtimes.
Feedback from staff and patients indicated that the
dining rooms at CERU and the experience that patients
have at mealtimes could be improved and therefore the
‘Dining room project’ was created.
The project is a service improvement initiative, led
by occupational therapist Kelly Hiscox and speech and
32 OTnews July 2019
language
therapist
Natasha Bruce.
The project set out
to create dining rooms at
CERU which: are supportive and welcoming for patients,
their family and friends; enable social and rehabilitation
opportunities; and empower patients with neurological
impairments to be more independent at meal times.
The Kings Fund (2012) identified that opportunities for
staff and patient engagement transform the experience
of the NHS, leading to increased feelings of ownership,
empowerment and control over care.
To consider how to improve the dining rooms the
project leaders reviewed the evidence base and gathered
feedback from staff, patients and their visitors about the
current dining rooms.
Qualitative and quantitative data was collected
from ward staff and patients using questionnaires. A
specially designed questionnaire was given to patients
with aphasia and additional support was provided by
visitors and staff to assist patients in completing the
questionnaire. A total of 36 staff and 30 patient and visitor
questionnaires were collected.