Ward Volunteering Programme
Finance department
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, Acute
The problem
While all staff in the NHS have a strong motivation to work to improve the quality of patient care, finance staff need to spend more time in clinical areas because otherwise it can be easy for them to forget the patients, and instead focus on numbers and spreadsheets.
The challenge
How might we spend more time in clinical areas so that we can enhance the patient experience, support our frontline staff, and improve our own motivation and job satisfaction?
The outputs
A programme that allows finance staff to volunteer on wards at mealtimes on a regular basis.
The outcomes
- Enhanced the patient experience and contributed to improvement of the quality of patient care.
- Freed up time for ward staff so that they can provide care elsewhere.
- Improved the motivation and satisfaction of finance staff by interacting directly with patients.
- Increased the presence of the finance department across the Trust.
The programme is in early stages of being implemented across other departments.
The Innovation
Read the full innovation on the ward volunteering programme
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Read nowWhat the peer-reviewers said
“Getting out of the office and onto the wards to engage with our patients is a great way to link back to why we are here and to also informally chat to staff to spot where things could be better.”
“Very simple idea that’s easy to implement and provides benefit to the clinical areas and the staff involved.”
“This innovation is a great idea to get staff more involved in seeing patient care. It is very true that it is easy for finance staff to get lost in numbers and spreadsheets and forget the real reason we are all here.”
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Here are all of the documents and resources related to this innovation