A new, louder voice

During her 25 years as a licensed practical nurse, Audra Leopold says she didn’t have a lot of opportunity to voice any concerns about her job or how things could be done differently. But since the Releasing Time to Care (RT2C) program was launched in April 2012 at Richmond Hospital, Audra says that she and the team now have that voice day in, day out, everyday.

“Under the program, we do 10 minute team meets to talk about what we can be doing differently for ourselves and for the patients,” she explains.  “It really gives us a voice and shows that our voice matters. Staff feel empowered and engaged. It’s exciting to have people come forward with the ideas they have anytime they want.”

The RT2C program at Richmond and Squamish General Hospitals recently won a B.C. Quality Award in the “Getting Better” category for improving the reliability, safety and efficiency of care for patients.

“We all feel really wonderful about it,” says Felicia Laing, project manager of VCH Quality & Patient Safety and Richmond Hospital. “The program’s made work more efficient which allows the nurses to spend more time with their patients and communication’s gotten better. You can feel the difference; the morale’s higher within the team. It’s making a difference to patient care.”

One of the proudest achievements was the reduction in patient falls on the units at RH and SGH.  Overall we have achieved a 29 per cent reduction in falls. Some units have seen falls go from 12 per month to 3 per month. Changes have also been made to decrease interruptions and to decrease waste. For example, reorganizing clean patient supplies have reduced the time and motion for staff allowing easier access. The result was an impressive savings of 240 nursing hours, per patient, per year. Other benefits include reducing the number of patient falls in half and bringing the overall team closer together.

“The connection to all levels of leadership has gone up 100 per cent,” Audra says. “We now see senior leadership come to the ward and participate in the team meets.

Felicia says the new practices are indicative of something deeper than just change in workflow.

“We’re talking about culture change,” she says. “Staff is interacting more with leadership and they’re involved more in the care plan. They identify problems, they solve those problems and have made a difference in their everyday practice.”