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Well – today concludes Nutrition and Hydration Week 2017! And I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that it has been the most successful demonstration of collaboration and energy that we have ever seen during this week in previous years!

As you all know, our mission for 2017 was to create a local movement of energy, activity and engagement around nutrition and hydration, to demonstrate its value as part of quality care, experience and safety improvement in our North Wales health and social care settings. We had a range of innovative plans, developed as a ‘bundle’ of initiatives; many of these were planned for launch this week, with the aim of continuing with a legacy of the events thereafter.

We started by requesting our talented artist Rachel Starkey to develop our logo to front our BCUHB Nutrition and Hydration 2017 program. We want to use this logo in communication, and possibly as a signpost to those patients needing assistance with nutrition and / or hydration. Rachel produced this gorgeous logo which we all love; she then added it to an email banner for us to use throughout the week.

On Tuesday 14th March we enjoyed the ‘Power of Many’ event launched across the Health Board. At each site we had senior representation from Dietetics, Nursing, Catering, Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy, who

observed patients’ meal time experience. At Glan Clwyd we observed the new ward based trolley service - from the kitchen to the ward and to the patient. Comments from patients about the trolley service quality were favourable: "5 Star!" And: "perfect presentation and service".

Each of the health professionals asked a range of questions and made a series of planned observations. These have informed work which will be taken forward into 2017, such as the SLT (Centre) observation that wards should have picture menus, and nursing noted that specific hand wipes were being

discontinued on some wards.

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Nutrition & Hydration Week 2017Nutrition & Hydration Week 2017

The dietitians asked quantitative and qualitative questions to populate the national BAPEN database. This allows benchmarking of quality across the country. As yet, this tool has not been populated by any other Health Board in Wales!

Wednesday 15th March saw Tea Parties hosted by Catering, on every inpatient ward across the Health Board. These provided an ideal opportunity to showcase our dedication to improving nutrition and hydration for patients, to patients, their families, loved ones, carers, and staff. And

yes indeed that is our lovely Chief Exec Gary Doherty hanging out with our patients, serving high tea and chatting about favourite recipes, and yes indeed, I am wearing a cupcake dress!

Chris Wright, our Director of Corporate Services, joined patients and staff in the Wrexham Maelor, and Chairman Peter Higson joined those in Colwyn Bay to share a slice and a chat

This absolutely fantastic coordination of senior Board members, communication and photos were all down to the fantastic Communication Team who were exceptional in bringing everything together. So, so grateful to them all.

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On Thirsty Thursday 16th we tipped our hats to our hard working BCUHB staff! We identified in a recent staff audit that staff rarely take time out of their busy schedules to drink enough during working hours. Evidence tells us this risks their physical and mental health wellbeing.

We dietitians set forth to help resolve this post haste! Armed with an information board, free bottled water, drinks dials, our new BCUHB pee charts, Squash Sticks and some wagging fingers, we pitched up and hydrated our people!

Our adorable pee chart was created by Andrea Davies and is in the last stages of being finalized. Once complete we intend to print on easy-wipe, easy-stick micrographic paper for placement in all hospital loos!

With a fantastic display of fun and high energy, our Wrexham Dietetic Team shone bright this Fruity Friday 17th! With a vast array of fresh fruit to give away to passing staff and visitors, the team promoted health and wellbeing in an exemplary fashion!

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Further to the last few weeks of planning, in addition to the pee charts and logo, we have a range of other materials which we intend to disseminate to the wards over the next 2 weeks. These will highlight our ongoing multidisciplinary commitment to facilitating improvements in nutrition and hydration for BCUHB.

Hydration poster (awaiting Welsh translation)

Nutrition and Hydration Policy

We are working to develop an overarching nutrition policy to align all core principles. Ward Managers and Matrons will be asked to show their commitment by signing our Charter. The Nutrition and Hydration Charter describes our vision of nutrition and hydration as an important part of quality care, experience and safety improvement in health and social care settings across BCUHB. The charter outlines the value of food and drink in the health and social care sector, to provide guidance for decision makers, service providers – profit and non-profit organisations, carers, families and those in receipt of the services. As signatories to this charter, staff commit to work in partnership towards a service where avoidable malnutrition related illnesses are eradicated. All who have signed up will be able to proudly display their ‘sign up’ poster for all to see!

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Moving forward…Moving forward…

Quality Check In…

We all understand it is essential that Ward Managers and Matrons are closely involved with the nutrition and hydration needs of their patients, and it is vital they are ‘checking in’ on nutrition and hydration on a daily basis to inform accountability, identifying needs for improved quality care and to facilitate change. 1000 Lives+ have published a core toolkit to facilitate this ‘checking in’ process – a process which is not intended to be punitive: it is simply an assessment of daily quality.

This year we are excited to launch our ‘Quality Check Ins’ in nutrition and hydration. We propose that the ‘Check ins’ will commence with a celebratory visit by a Matron in agreed pilot areas, who will look for areas demonstrating good practice, plus supporting innovative solutions to improvement. Using the 1000 Lives guide, the Improvement Team have developed some prompt questions to use during a ‘ward walk around’ to facilitate action. These have been successfully piloted and the toolkit is ready to go.

Power of Many

Catering, Nursing and Dietetics remain committed to continuing the Power of Many events at regular intervals throughout the year.

Art Work

We commissioned a local artist to produce this beautiful ‘rich picture’ to capture our vision for the future of BCUHB Nutrition and Hydration. Once this has been translated, it will be distributed alongside other material, for proud display across our sites.

So many people have contributed to this week and this work, but none more than Di Read, who has been unwavering in her dedication to seeing this week through to its conclusion, and to facilitate ongoing improvement, and Reena Cartmell, Gill Harris, Chris Lynes, Ronnie Jones, Karl Berry and Alun Owen who have offered their consistent support and passion for working together to make things better for our patients. THANK YOU!

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