Our ward (13 bedded Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit) will be beginning to implement the ten safe wards interventions over the next twelve months . As a newly qualified nurse I am excited and very Happy to be involved in creating a positive change under the safe wards approach. we will be commencing with clear mutual expectations and know each other. I have been given the opportunity to be named as lead nurse (with support of management) in creating and implementing safe wards approaches. I will hopefully be able to seek further support on here and share successes and barriers that our team may come across along the way. We launch officially at the end of June. Knowing that other PICUs have achieved positive results under Safe wards would be very helpful in further evidencing the few with concerns of its effectiveness and apprehension of change. I will hopefully have lots of positive results to report.

Hi Fay, very happy to give you all the support you need in implementing Safewards - we've had good results since we even started thinking about implementing. We started with positive words as that was the easiest and also had a cheeky effect on all the staff at hand overs because it starts to change the culture. Know each other was the next to get started but it's work ongoing as you'll never get everyone to get their forms done and photos etc - in the end we used cartoons for some, and photos of their hobbies, pending actual photos. CME was the hardest to get going with us, we wanted it to be an effective tool so we organised awaydays to thrash out what the staff felt we should have - to get some consistent messages but also to spread the word about no blanket bans and to have a more individualised focus on flashpoints. I think on PICU we struggled to get any meaningful consistent involvement from service users on what they felt should be included , simply because our clients are too poorly, chaotic or disinterested to get involved. We've tried to use MHM to keep going back to it, but again the focus will be on ongoing work and a preparedness to update the poster as needed - our estates department print them for us so it's no cost to us.
Hope this helps for starters - well done for becoming the Safewards lead!
Get in touch if you want more info or want to visit
Sian

Just a thought Fay, if I was starting again, I would get user groups/reps involved much earlier - even prior to starting. Because the inpatients on PICU are often not in a place where they are able to get involved, I'd do a teaching session for user reps at the very start, explain what Safewards is all about and get their input from an early stage. I don't think our implementation is less effective because they were less involved, but it would give it greater depth and value if we had. User reps are impressed with what we've done and the effect but I'd have liked them to have had more hands on involvement

Thank you Sian

Sorry for late reply i have been in sunny wales

I will take this on board, away days sound good I think as a team we need to be able to express any ideas concerns in a relaxed environment.
Brill advice re: user group reps involved early will have a chat with my team and let you know how we get on.