Youth Out Loud!'s 15 Steps Challenge at Kingston Hospital
It is important to understand what good quality care looks and feels like from a patient, relative, friend and carer’s perspective. The 15 steps challenge is an inpatient toolkit which helps to provide a line of communication between service users and those at the organisational level, in order to identify improvements that could be made to enhance the overall patient experience.
"During February 2019, me and several others in Youth Out Loud! spent a morning at Kingston Hospital completing the 15 steps challenge. The 15 steps challenge involved us going into the paediatric day unit and the paediatric emergency unit. We evaluated these areas on four sections, welcoming, safe, well organised and caring and involving. We evaluated each area as well as the main hospital for how we felt it was for children and noted down any improvements, which we later fed back to the hospital. I can definitely say that I enjoyed the day and I believe everyone else did too. Thank you to Kingston Hospital for the day. - YOL! member"
A number of observations made by the group following a feedback session has resulted in changes to both areas including:
- The provision of more detailed and visible patient information, reading material for older children
- A change to the lighting.
- To refresh the artwork in the DSU.
- To design a welcoming entrance for the PED are also in the process of being organised.
This project was subsequently showcased at the Youth Out Loud! launch event in April and certificates were awarded to the group members for their participation, invaluable feedback and support.
According to Elizabeth Tsangaraki, Patient Experience & Quality Improvement Lead at Kingston Hospital, "it is beneficial for young people to take back these experiences into their community/school/college to raise awareness of both the challenge and the hospital’s priority aim of involving the wider community in everything we do".
About the day, YOL! members said:
"I had the opportunity to give feedback and I used my memories from a previous bad experience at another hospital waiting room to make suggestions that would ensure other young people don’t have the same negative experience that I had."
"Participating in the 15 steps challenge was eye-opening for me as I learned much more about the running of a few hospital wards. I learnt alot about the many things the hospital does to make children feel welcome--e.g tooth fairy money. I also felt that my advice and evaluation was truly taken on board. I would love to participate again."
"The 15 steps challenge was a great opportunity for Youth Out Loud! to share their experiences of being in waiting rooms and more. We can all guess what someone might like to see but you will never truly know until you ask. We have done quite a few different things as a group and this was definitely one of our favourite days!"
Young people at Youth Out Loud! look forward to reviewing more healthcare services.
