Empowering Health, Enhancing Recovery

Outlands Movement is a partnership between Newcastle Hospitals Charity and Outlands, focused on raising important funds to support more active wards, leading to reablement, reconditioning and recovery of patients. All funds raised by Outlands will be accredited to them and be directed to Newcastle Hospitals Active Ward project.

Active Ward

Active Ward is an initiative to increase activity in hospital, which aligns with Outlands own ethos of supporting movement, healthy living and overall wellbeing. When a patient resides in hospital, we medicalise movement, meaning that patients tend to move only when completing certain tasks such as walking to the toilet. The health benefits of being active are substantial and consequently the short and long-term negative impact on the health of people who are less active represents a huge challenge for our population and healthcare system.

Hospital-associated inactivity can cause accelerated bone loss and a reduction in muscle strength for 3-5 years. It also increases the risk of disability by 48% and the risk of needing institutional care on discharge five-fold therefore causing unnecessary patient harm.

Project Aim and Objectives

The ambition is to change ward culture and promote an active ward experience focussing on reablement, reconditioning and recovery. To embed a positive and active ward model with longer-term cultural change of re-enabling patients.

Key objectives include:

Improve patient experience & health outcomes - Patients have a positive experience when there is a culture of safety that puts them first. Patients will benefit from a more active ward model that will help to facilitate and promote their independence in day-to-day tasks and prepare them to return home safely and confidently.

Reduce readmissions & improve patient flow - This positive experience and aim to discharge safely home with a higher level of independence will also positively impact on patients’ families, friends, and carers in knowing that the patient is more likely to be safe at home and stay at home (reducing risk of readmission).

Increased staff motivation - By promoting a more positive experience for patients and gaining this feedback we hope this will encourage staff to continue this work, adopting new ways of working and promoting this to other areas.

Reach

Over a 12-month period, the two wards currently identified for the pilot have discharged 2,356 patients.

We anticipate through personalised and group activity programmes that all patients on identified wards will benefit.