Our Professional Lead for Physiotherapy has given a presentation at an international conference in Germany to highlight a successful James Paget initiative to mobilise patients following hip surgery.
Rene Gray who, in addition to being our Physiotherapy lead, is also an Honorary Fellow at the University of East Anglia, recently attended the 25th EFORT (European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology) congress in Hamburg where he gave a presentation about the Out Of Bed Project (OOBP).
The congress, held from 22 to 24 May, provides a platform for health professionals across Europe to share knowledge and techniques and saw Rene sharing information about the Project.
Rene says; “I was invited to be a speaker by the European Fragility Fracture Network and went to present our work on the Orthopaedic Out Of Bed Project which we have successfully implemented at the James Paget, and are currently working with our Integrated Care System partners at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn to expand.
“The Out Of Bed Project is a therapy-led education and training programme for 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.
“The OOBP was initially set up for Ward 6 patients at the James Paget, with the initiative dramatically increasing the number of patients mobilised the day after their surgery. Early mobilisation 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.
“As an orthopaedic ward we were able to improve our outcomes compared to the national average and this helps to prevent de-conditioning and reduce length of stay.”
A research paper on the OOBP submitted by Rene Gray and colleagues Melissa Taylor and Ryan Bullock - ‘The Orthopaedic Out Of Bed Project (OOBP): Improving early mobilisation following femoral fracture using a therapy-led education programme’ - has been published by the BMJ Open and the team have been presenting to conferences in Europe to share their good practice. They will be heading to the Fragility Fracture Network European Congress in Istanbul in October to continue to highlight the success of the project.
Rene says; “The publication of the research paper has been through the support of our James Paget Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional (NMAHP) research team, and with funding support via a UEA Health and Social Care Partnership scholarship, which allowed time to write and finish the publication, and the health foundation Q community who funded publication costs.”
Please visit https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/12/Suppl_2/e002301 to read the BMJ article.