Sock-sessful idea for falls prevention | News

Royal Surrey’s Transformation and Quality Improvement team holds regular sessions for staff giving them the chance to highlight and share improvements they have made to ways of working within their department.

Members of the trust’s Executive team are invited along to these sessions to hear about and applaud the changes that have been made and the impact they’ve had.

In a recent session, Ivan Maglanque, Lead Falls Prevention Nurse, shared a new initiative designed to make patients who are at high risk of falls more visible to staff.

Bright yellow socks are provided for these vulnerable patients to wear, with the aim of improving their visibility and helping all staff to be more aware of them in the ward. This is part of an initiative “Think Yellow”, which many NHS Trusts are adopting, to easily identify and monitor patients who are at risk of falls.

The proposal for the introduction of the bright socks at Royal Surrey was assessed and approved and the initiative is now being piloted with patients on frailty wards. 

The Transformation team’s sessions demonstrate how small improvements can lead to outcomes that make a difference for both patients and staff at the hospital. 

Pictured above, Ivan with his falls prevention proposal and patient David Beamish with nurse Annie.