Gold for NUH at the Annual RITA Awards
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) have won Gold and Bronze awards at this weeks Annual Reminiscence/Rehabilitation & Interactive Therapy Activities (RITA) Awards, where hospitals and care homes are recognised and awarded for the great outcomes they are achieving using RITA. NUH won Gold for Best Use of RITA for 1:1 Care accross two of our hospital sites and Bronze for the RITA Star award.
Created by My Improvement Network, the Reminiscence/Rehabilitation & Interactive Therapy Activities (RITA) technology is aimed at augmenting the care delivered to older people, those living with Dementia, Mental Health conditions, acute brain injuries and learning difficulties as a means of supporting them, reducing their agitation, isolation, depression and delirium, with the primary purpose of enhancing quality of life and wellbeing.
The RITA project at NUH is led by Katie Moore, Head of Patient Engagement and Experience and supported by Megan Dawes, Arts Coordinator. RITA has been distributed to several wards across our QMC and City Hospital sites where the aim of the project is to increase access to arts and activities for patients, primarily with dementia, and their carers, on our Health Care of Older People and Surgery wards.
Ward staff report the most popular functions on RITA as Movies, Music and Games. The aquarium has also been noted as a really effective tool to help patients feel less agitated and provide something for them to focus on. Many staff report that their RITA is in use ‘all of the time’ and this is clearly demonstrated when visiting the wards, where RITA can often be found supporting an isolated patient or being used to play relaxation music for the whole of a bay.
RITA has also become part of the daily routine for the therapy department Activity Coordinators. They work across a number of wards and use the RITA exercise videos to encourage mobility for patients. Several ward areas have reported that using RITA has helped to encourage positive engagement and interaction, reduce agitation, distress and boredom and RITA has now been used for over 1000 hours on a number of devices on our wards.
Chief Nurse, Michelle Rhodes said "“I am delighted that we are using Rita on our wards at Nottingham University Hospitals. The pleasure, comfort, enjoyment and outcomes RITA is giving our patients, carers and staff is wonderful and lovely to see and have.“
A number of other wards at NUH have since purchased RITA devices following the success of the project, some with the kind support of Nottingham Hospitals Charity, these areas include Stroke, Respiratory and the Learning Disability team. Next steps for the project include identifying a RITA Champion in each area to continue support with monitoring usage and staff/patient feedback on the impact of these devices.
We would like to congratulate all staff involved in the roll out of this project and thank them for the work they and their wards have done over the last 12 months to introduce and improve patient and carer experience through RITA.