Always Events
Always Events
Always Events are defined as "those aspects of the patient and family experience that should always occur when patients interact with healthcare professionals and the health care delivery system".
Always Events is a co-production quality improvement methodology which seeks to understand what really matters to patients, people who use services, their families and carers and then co-design changes to improve experience of care. Read further information about NHS Always Events
Always Events currently being implemented in the Trust include Calm at Night and Skin to Skin
Calm at Night (CAN)
The CAN Always Event was initiated in response to Inpatient Survey Feedback and following interviews with 480 patients regarding their night time experience. A series of interventions to promote comfort at night and to aid sleep were introduced into two medical wards, and two neurosurgical wards.
The graph below illustrates a significant difference in how well patients slept in 2016 compared to 2019 on ward L24 after implementing the Always Event.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has not been possible to visit patients on wards to ask them about their experiences. Engagement will begin again in summer 2023.
Skin to Skin
Data from The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative Audit Tool for Maternity Services showed that not all women are offered skin to skin contact, despite this being an important step for baby development; reducing both mum and baby's stress levels as well as encouraging bonding and breastfeeding. As a result, a Maternity engagement event was held in July 2019 which was facilitated by our Maternity colleagues and PCPI team, in collaboration with Leeds Maternity Voices Group. The event gathered feedback from postnatal; women around their experiences of skin to skin contact, following the birth of their baby.
Feedback from the engagement event led to an Always Event and two vision statements were co-created:
- I will always be offered uninterrupted skin to skin contact with my baby as soon as possible and for as long as I want
- I will always receive consistent information during my pregnancy about the benefits of skin to skin contact
The graph below illustrates the significant difference in physical skin to skin since the initiative began and the vision statement is now met.
September/October 2019
May/June 2021
Teams are working hard to ensure skin to skin discussions take place during antenatal appointments, in order to meet the vision statement. Initiatives have been put into place to support antenatal conversations and reviews of the Event take place every 8 weeks.
