25 November 2016
The team behind University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust’s Happy App, including CLAHRC West researchers Sabi Redwood and Fiona Fox, won the Award for Staff Engagement at the prestigious HSJ Awards on 23 November.
Over the past two years, researchers from NIHR CLAHRC West have worked together with doctors, nurses and managers at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UH Bristol), to test and evaluate the Happy App, a web-based tool which collects real-time, work-related mood feedback from staff. The app collects data from nursing, medical, and other staff groups about problems and frustrations, but also positive experiences relating to their shift.
The quality of patient care relies largely on the skills, compassion and enthusiasm of front line staff. Evidence linking staff satisfaction and patient experience shows that high levels of engagement impact positively on both staff and organisations and that NHS organisations deliver better quality care when their staff are engaged and involved in decision-making.
The Happy App has been very popular at UH Bristol. Many different departments now use it. By October 2016 the app was being used in 42 areas, where an average of 11 entries are made each day by staff. The evaluation work by CLAHRC West has shown that there have been real improvements in local engagement between managers and their teams, and that it has stimulated tangible improvements in service delivery.
Judges were “bowled over” by the tool, which they said “demonstrably shifted behaviour and culture in clinical teams”.
Anne Frampton, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at UH Bristol and one of the Happy App team, said:
“We were incredibly proud to attend these awards on behalf of University Hospitals Bristol, which represent a fantastic achievement resulting from much hard work and enthusiasm.
“We would like to thank the many teams at the Trust who helped implement and roll out this tool, as well as our partnership with NIHR CLAHRC West who worked with us throughout the process to evaluate the website.”
Another app that CLAHRC West has been evaluating was highly commended at the awards. The Otsuka Health Solutions and Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust Join the Dots app was highly commended in the Innovation in Mental Health category.
Alastair McLellan, Editor, HSJ, said:
“In this year of unremitting toil and increasing pressure, the entries to the HSJ Awards have once again touched record levels. Becoming an HSJ Awards finalist has never been tougher or more worthy of celebration.
“The excellence represented this evening demonstrates the NHS remains both brave and bold in meeting the challenges that rising demand presents for all modern healthcare systems. It also underlines the ambition found in ever sector and region of the NHS to improve patient outcomes, experience and safety.”