A James Paget quality improvement programme – the Out Of Bed Project (OOBP), which aims to promote early mobilisation after hip fracture surgery – has been published in BMJ Open and is now reaching an international audience thanks to its innovative approach.
Initially set up by our team for Ward 6 patients at our hospital, the project saw the number of patients mobilised the day after their surgery increase dramatically – and this is linked to better outcomes for patients. Those not mobilised quickly after surgery are more likely to have issues related to post-operative confusion, pain or low blood pressure.
A research paper on the OOBP submitted by Professional Lead for Physiotherapy Rene Gray along with Melissa Taylor and Ryan Bullock - ‘The Orthopaedic Out Of Bed Project (OOBP): Improving early mobilisation following femoral fracture using a therapy-led education programme’ - was accepted for publication earlier in the year and has now appeared online.
The team are also taking the report to new audiences around the world – with Rene and Melissa recently travelling to the capital city of Norway, Oslo, to present the orthopaedic therapy teams work, related to the paper, at the International Fragility Fracture Conference.
Ryan Bullock will also be presenting this work at the National Chartered Society for Physiotherapy Conference on November 1st in Birmingham.
The James Paget Out Of Bed Project has improved clinical outcomes and multi-disciplinary team collaboration in relation to early mobilisation after hip fracture surgery and the project was successful in securing funding earlier this year to expand the programme to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn.
This will provide the same intervention - a therapy led training programme - within the QEH trauma ward and collect clinical and implementation outcomes related to early mobilisation. This will aim to build on the work that the orthopaedic therapy team, trauma nurses and HCAs have achieved at the James Paget across Norfolk and Waveney.
Rene Gray said; “The Out Of Bed Project is a therapy-led education and training programme, delivered to trauma ward healthcare assistants, which has helped to improve confidence and capability to engage in early mobilisation of our hip fracture patients after their surgery.
“As an orthopaedic ward we have been able to improve our outcomes compared to the national average and this helps to prevent de-conditioning, reduce mortality and length of stay.
“The publication of the research paper has been through the support of our James Paget Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional (NMAHP) research team, the UEA Health and Social Care Partnership scholarship funding and the health foundation Q community who funded publication costs.
“We have been disseminating these findings both nationally and internationally and the publication of this paper will be a great launching pad for the next stage of this project which will see a collaboration between the James Paget and the Queen Elizabeth hospital to implement this project across the integrated care system.”
The BMJ article can be found here; https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/12/Suppl_2/e002301.altmetrics
