Tauranga nurses take time to care

BOPDHB Director of Nursing Julie Robinson says she is proud that Tauranga Hospital has become the first in the country to fully implement Releasing Time to Care.

Tauranga Hospital nurses are spending more hours on direct patient care after becoming New Zealand's first hospital to take on an international productivity and care improvement programme.

Tauranga Hospital's surgical ward 3a was the nation's first ward to fully implement Releasing Time to Care.

Time spent on direct patient care in Ward 3a increased by 46 per cent, equalling up to 2102 hours extra per year. Time taken for shift handovers was reduced from 30 minutes to 10 to 15 minutes, freeing up a further 684 hours a year.

The Productive Ward: Releasing Time to Care was first developed by the UK National Health Service. It empowers staff to identify areas for improvement on their wards by looking at processes such as drugs rounds, ward rounds and discharges.

The staff then find ways of streamlining these processes, freeing them up to spend more time with patients, which improves both patient safety and ward efficiency.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board director of nursing Julie Robinson said other notable outcomes included staff satisfaction increased, staff turnover decreased and a reduction in patient falls.

"The benefits are both tangible and intangible, some of the things are really hard to measure for the dollar value but staff who can come to work and do the job they believe they are employed to do which is to be with patients," she said.

"That return on your investment and for your staff is certainly well worthwhile putting the programme in."

All 10 wards at Tauranga Hospital and one ward at Whakatane Hospital have now fully implemented the programme - which consists of three foundation modules and eight process modules - over the course of the last five years.

Over 625 staff have been trained in Releasing Time to Care and Tauranga Hospital's Mental Health Unit plans to begin implementing The Productive Mental Health Ward this year.