What is the positive change that has emerged through new collaborations or partnerships during Covid-19 that your project is going to embed?

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, staff have been redeployed into several positions.  One of the initiatives that Kildare West Wicklow took responsibility for was a COVID-19 assessment hub.  These assessment hubs have been staffed by physiotherapists, GPs, community nurses and public health nurses.

The experience of working in the assessment hub allowed time to work as part of a close team, and enabled staff to connect and get to know one another. There was time for peer supervision, learning from each other and also time to build trust.

Reflections:

Staff acknowledged their sadness at the lack of connectedness between colleagues in the community and shared stories about isolation and loneliness in their day to day work.

Other staff shared that they were amazed at the community nurses’ level of competency and their “can do” attitude whilst working in the COVID-19 assessment hub.

“Staff engagement creates joy in the midst of madness.”

What does your project aim to achieve?

BHAG: Develop staff engagement and cultures of person-centredness by learning from the experience of staff,  building on the partnerships and relationships developed in the COVID-19 assessment hub – using practice development principles, QI thinking, methodology and framework.

Aim: Provide a structured and supportive programme of staff engagement in partnership with management, where competent staff can continue to connect, build trust, mentor and support each other, and also innovate to improve practice.

This approach will build on the foundation of goodwill created by staff working in the COVID-19 assessment hubs and will go some way towards assuring them that their voices have been heard.

How will the project be delivered?

Collaboration between the National Quality Improvement Team and Dublin South, Kildare West Wicklow Community Service.

Integrating learning from the COVID-19 assessment hub and linking to the Framework for improving quality.  For example; Covid as the context, staff engagement and QI as the focus  (using framework drivers).

• Staff Engagement

Engaging the hearts and minds of staff working in community services with an emphasis on co-production (management and staff)  every step of the way.

How is your project going to share learning?

The learning will be shared by:

• Conducting pre and post staff engagement surveys to determine to determine what difference the project made
• Developing ‘before’ and ‘after’ stories
• Working with the National Staff Engagement Forum and enabling them to help share the learning
• This project also has the potential to bring Q to the attention of a wide range of services in Ireland that wouldn’t previously have known about the Q community.