People living with respiratory conditions have helped Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT)to create a resource to help others.
Respiratory nurses Lauren MacKenzie and Merlyn D’Cruz wanted an online space where patients, families and carers could get accurate and up-to-date information to help them – so set about creating a new page on KCHFT’s website.
Lauren and Merlyn worked with the trust’s Communication Team to have some initial information on the page, but then developed it thanks to user feedback. Those who visited the page were presented with a pop-up survey asking them what they found useful and not so useful, what additional information they would like to see and how the page could be better and it was then adapted, where possible.
Lauren said: “Patients told us they struggled to find information about their condition and we had one incident where a family had tried to find information and then followed advice from a dubious website.
“We wanted the information to be available to everyone and in different languages. As the KCHFT website has translation software built in, this was ideal.
“One suggestion was to add hospice information, which we have done. Others said they wanted us to avoid using jargon and terms they didn’t understand.
“Our aim was to provide accurate and reliable information online for patients, so they could look up information quickly and easily. Previously, the information they wanted was scattered around, but now it is all in one place.”
The web page now includes information about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), using an inhaler, inhaler recycling, using a nebuliser, support groups and links to other organisations which might be able to help.
The quality improvement (QI) project finished in November 2019, although new information continues to be added when necessary, to keep it up-to-date. Lauren and Merlyn both did the KCHFT Fundamentals one-day QI training course to learn more about the QI tools which would help them with their project. They started off by using the fishbone tool to map out their ideas.
See the east Kent respiratory web page here