Improving patient care
Posted on 31 May 2013
A new interim report about the national NHS Change Day features a case study explaining the innovative approach to improving patient care by nursing students at the University of York.
The NHS Change Day created a mass movement of people working in the NHS demonstrating the difference they could make to patient care by pledging one simple act.
At York, second-year student nurses swapped uniforms for pyjamas so they could experience what it was like to be a patient. The Clinical Simulation Unit in the University’s Department of Health Sciences was turned into a ward for the day, with students and staff playing the roles of patients, relatives and carers, as well as medical staff.
The NHS Change Day team has also produced a video filmed at the Healthcare Innovation Expo in London, featuring York nursing students.
Against the background of footage taken in York’s Department of Health Sciences, it shows Louise Towse and Alex Young, Vice President and President of York’s student nursing society NurSoc, meeting Una O’Brien, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health.
In the video, Louise explains to the senior health official what it was like to experience being a patient at first-hand.
Louise and Alex attended the Expo as the special guests of the NHS Change Day team and met a number of other senior health officials including the Chief Nursing Officer for England, Jane Cummings.