Chelsea and Westminster Intensive Care Unit nominated for national nursing award

Photo: Members of the ICU Team

The Chelsea and Westminster Intensive Care Unit (ICU) team has been shortlisted for the Nursing Times Awards 2012 in the ‘Emergency and Critical Care’ category.

Their nomination is “Using Customer Journey Mapping to improve the experience for relatives and patients in critical care”.

Elaine Manderson, Clinical Nurse Specialist for Intensive Care, said: “We wished to bring patients’ and relatives’ stories to life, with the aim of improving satisfaction.

“In the Intensive Care Unit this can be difficult to do, as many of the patients are sedated and unable to engage in traditional feedback mechanisms, so we used Customer Journey Mapping (CJM).”

CJM is a process of tracking and describing all the experiences that people have as they use a service, taking into account not only what happens to them, but also their responses to their experiences.

The benefits of using CJM means it allows staff to deliver information, messages and services at the most appropriate time and make sure they are getting things right when emotions are highest or needs are greatest.

This allows the team to provide a seamless, streamlined service.

Jane-Marie Hamil, Head Nurse for Critical Care, comments: “From undertaking this process we have gained a greater understanding of what it is like for our patients and relatives using our service.

“We have also highlighted areas for future work including further work on delirium in ICU, communication skills training, rehabilitation and discharge from ICU.”

The insights gained have helped shape strategy and policy, for example through the development of new information booklets, a new induction strategy and communication training for staff.

Overall the Nursing Times Awards received more than 1000 entries from 96 different organisations and the ICU team have made it down the final nine in their section.

The ceremony is taking place on Wednesday 31 October at the Hilton Hotel in London.

We wish all the team in ICU the best of luck!