The RUH is joining a national social media movement launched by a terminally ill doctor to get as many members of NHS staff as possible pledging to introduce themselves to their patients.
The hospital has joined forces with more than 80 other NHS organisations that have pledged to launch/boost their own ‘Hello my name is…’ collectively on 2nd February.
In the RUH’s Trust alone, they have 5000 staff working with over 450,000 patients each year.
The collective launch will boost the national campaign around compassionate care considerably, with more than 400,000 staff potentially involved.
Helen Blanchard, RUH Director of Nursing and Midwifery, said: “We are pleased to be supporting this campaign, which shows how the smallest things can make the biggest difference to our patients.
“We’ll be following the campaign advice to ask staff to ensure their name badges are visible, introduce themselves to their patients, ask the patients how they would like to be addressed and introduce colleagues who may also be involved in or taking over the care of an individual.
“It is hoped that our patients and their families or carers will then always know who is looking after them.”
The ‘Hello my name is…’ campaign was spearheaded by Dr Kate Granger, a terminally ill young hospital consultant from Yorkshire who works in elderly care, to improve the patient experience not only here in the UK, but across the world.
Kate became frustrated with the number of staff who failed to introduce themselves to her when she was in hospital.
Her campaign on social media platform Twitter is inspiring nurses, doctors, therapists, receptionists, porters, cleaners and staff in all roles.
This campaign is simple – reminding staff to go back to basics and introduce themselves to patients properly.
Kate talks about this as “the first rung on the ladder to providing compassionate care” and sees it as the start of making a vital human connection, beginning a therapeutic relationship and building trust between patients and healthcare staff.
