Our person-centred care programme has recently had an external review which has given the approach fantastic feedback. The workstream is led by Senior Nurse, Vicki Drummond and Associate Director of Nursing, Renee Comerford, alongside other colleagues including Amanda McKie and Anita Devine, who make up the person-centred care working group.

The external review was by the Picker Institute who are an international charity working across health and social care with a particular focus on improving patient experience, person centred care and clinical excellence.

The submission for the review highlighted the shared understanding of person centred care, which has amplified and improved person centred approaches across all staff groups at CHFT, and included the three main aims to:

• Co-produce a shared definition of person centred care which works in practice to improve experience of care.
• Explore and promote what person-centred care means to people and the impact it has.
• Develop resources to support, empower and engage colleagues, patients and carers in person centred approaches which enhance individual experiences.

The external review feedback said that it is a project in which everyone is invested in and is a great example of what co-creation, co-design and co-delivery really mean. It also highlighted how patient voice is loud throughout the project and the understanding of what personalisation of care really means. They also praised the real power of the project through being led by our senior nurses, and the strong leadership which wasn’t afraid to challenge thinking, or change and adapt when needed.

Reflecting on the feedback, Vicki Drummond, said: “This feedback really shows how our teams and services have strengthened person-centred care approaches to support people to learn how they can be involved in their care, share what is important to them and understand what matters most to the person. The person-centred care programme has had a profound effect on patients, carers and colleagues and their experience, satisfaction and health in a short space of time. Thank you so much to all colleagues who have been a part of it!”

To accompany the submission, they also sent two digital stories, alongside our person-centred care film. You can have a look at the stories from Jenny and Nev on our digital story library on the intranet.