School of Nursing and Midwifery Scholarly Impact Report 2021

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CATHERINE MCAULEY SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, UCC

TRANSLATING EVIDENCE & INNOVATION FOR HEALTH

‘WhatMatters’: Innovation towardsage friendly systems

Lead and Team Members

(HAD) (Zisberg et al. 2011.) HAD is associatedwith adverse patient outcomes including falls, loss of mobility, delirium and prolonged hospital stay (Tasheva et al. 2019). Early mobilisation, optimising nutrition intake and proactive cognitive engagement reduce the risk of HAD and promote patient recovery. However, there are barriers at a patient, staff and system level that make it difficult for nursing teams to consistently prioritise these fundamental care activities (de Foubert et al 2021). Our clinical partners in the project are Cork University Hospital (CUH), South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) and Mallow General Hospital (MGH). In the Frailty Care Bundle, we work with the nursing and MDT to identify priorities for change to increase patients’ daily mobility, nutrition intake, and cognitive stimulation. Some of the changes introduced are mobility boards with a daily patient mobility goal, energy dense diets for older people, improved protein snack rounds, patient information leaflets, and patient activity packs. To date we have demonstrated an 18% increase in patient step count (walking), increased opportunities for patients to increase food intake and a small reduction in antipsychotic drug use to manage patient distressed behaviour. The project implementation has been complicated by COVID-19 and cyber attacks, but it has never been more necessary to prioritise fundamental care for older people. It is testimony to the resilience and commitment of front-line clinical staff that we have been able to enact change despite the many challenges of the last 24 months. The project is jointly funded by Health Research Board (HRB) and Professor Bridie O Sullivan, Chief Director of Nursing/Midwifery, South SouthWest Hospital Group (SSWHG).

Principal investigator: Prof Corina Naughton Clinical Skills Facilitator: Marguerite de Foubert RGN MSc Research Assistant: Helen Cummins RD and Francis Barry RGN Also Ruth McCullagh (School of Clinical Therapies, UCC) Darren Dahly (HRB Clinical Research Facility), Brendan Palmer (HRB Clinical Research Facility), Teresa Wills (School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC), Dawn A Skelton (Department of Physiotherapy and Paramedicine, Glasgow Caledonia University), Aileen Murphy (Cork University Business School), SheenaMcHugh(School ofPublicHealth,UCC), Salvatore Tedesco (Tyndall National Institute), Denis O’Mahony (School of Medicine, UCC)

18.05.2021

On Thursday, 3rd June 2021 the Fundamental Care for Older Adults Conference was hosted by the Ageing Integrated Care group. The conference theme was:

What Matters: Innovation towards Age Friendly Systems This online, free conference included topics such as:

Twitter Handle

@frailtycarebund Publications: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34240755/

• Frailty Care Bundle in Acute Care • Stroke Tele-rehabilitation • Dementia & delirium • ‘My Support’ Anticipatory care planning • Enablement of older people

References

• de Foubert M, Cummins H, McCullagh R, Brueton V, Naughton C. Systematic review of interventions targeting fundamental care to reduce hospital-associated decline in older patients. J Adv Nurs. 2021 Jul 9. doi: 10.1111/jan.14954. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34240755. • Tasheva P, VollenweiderP, KraegeV, et al. Association Between Physical Activity Levels in the Hospital Setting and Hospital-Acquired Functional Decline in Elderly Patients. JAMA NetwOpen.2020;3(1): e1920185. doi:10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2019.20185 • Zisberg, A., Shadmi, E., Gur‐Yaish, N., Tonkikh, O., & Sinoff, G. (2015). Hospital‐associated functional decline: The role of hospitalizationprocesses beyond individual risk factors. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 63(1), 55-62

Over 80 delegates registered for the conference from across the South Southwest Hospital Group and beyond, with representation from clinical and academic partners.

Frailty Care Bundle

The School of Nursing and Midwifery are working with frontline clinical nurses to improve quality of care for older people as COVID-19 and cyber attacks threaten our health system Up to 40% of older patients develop a new functional or cognitive deficit during hospitalisation, termed hospital associated decline