Leanne Short Email and Phone Number

My day involves attending a morning meeting with the MDT to discuss which patients are being discharged that day, who are medically fit but may need some social care input or further support in the community with either rehabilitation in a community setting or extra help at home with Physiotherapy. I also speak to the district nursing team to make sure that the patient will be supported in the community with some health needs such as end of life patients and those needing dressings changed if unable to attend their GP practice.After the morning meeting I communicate to the relevant teams which patients need extra support. I also update nerve center and the discharge app which highlights who is being discharge.Most of the day involves organising patient transport if needed, making sure TTAs have been written by the Drs and dispensed by pharmacy, phoning social services if needed to discuss patients care on discharge or calling the Rehab coordinator to discuss discharge dates to other facilities.Once a discharge plan is agreed, I speak to the patient and sometimes next of kin to make them aware.Throughout my time in Discharge Planning, I have found myself having to be highly organised to being able to multitask in a highly stressful environment and empathetic as patients and families are often strained and sometimes not happy with the discharge plan.

I continued my role as a HCA once I moved back to Luton as detailed below.Once I had successfully been promoted to a Band 4, I was able to arrange activities for patients and set up a walking group as well as a physical health group. As part of this, I had to discuss with the MDT the purpose of the groups as well as seeking permission for patients to be granted leave to participate. I organised several packs of information for other health care assistances to follow if I was unable to on the day that the group was organised for. I supported a member of the HCA team to organise a dental hygienist to come in and discuss the importance of good mouth hygiene. As part of the physical health group, I implemented a system to check every patients weight as well as BP and heart rate on a weekly basis. I developed an extra graph which was used to track this information, as at the time, the trusts aim was to help mental health patients become physically fit. I was able to communicate to others on my team how this would be completed and then sent the data back to the Clinical Lead. I took the initiative to book the rest of the nursing team on to a Physical Health course so that they can understand what is needed, as well as providing monthly updates for those who need refreshing. I have undertook Audits on the MEWS charts and have had to report the results to the ward manager as well as the Intergrated Clinical Lead.

I completed Infection Control, Basic First Aid, and Basic Life Support courses in July 2010, Breakaway training in August 2010, MERT, PMVA and Clinical Manual Handling in October 2010. I completed my Clinical course in April 2011 and have recently completed my annual mandatory training. All of which have now been updated.I understand the correct medication, dose and treatment plan is based on a person’s individual needs and medical situation and side effects also differ from person to person dependant on the dosage, physical health, age, gender and body size of the individual.Since working in my current position I have been able to expand on my degree and have used it to promote healthier lifestyle choices to the service users as well as being able to help them make positive steps to move from the ward to an acute care setting.