www.hellomynameis.org.uk  

1) Context: Where was this improvement work done? Describe the unit or department. Describe the staff involved and the client groups.When was it done? This improvement work was a national initiative with the potential to involve all United Kingdom (UK) health professionals although its scope, given the social media platform utilized, is worldwide. It was commenced by a medical trainee who has a rare small round cell cancer in her abdomen and after five rounds of chemotherapy has entered a palliative phase of her condition. The initial phases of the project were realised in late August 2013.

2) Problem: Describe the specific problem or system dysfunction that you set out to address. How was it affecting patient or client care? In 2013 three reports, Francis, Keogh and Berwick, revealed substantial failings in the UK healthcare system. The root cause of the problems did not only involve system processes and errors but revealed, in some institutions, a culture of practice was being accepted that resulted in poor quality care and at times little or no compassion.

www.hellomynameis.org.uk  3) Assessment of problem and analysis of its causes: Describe how you quantified the problem? How did you assess the causes of the problem? How did you involve all the relevant staff at this stage? Despite these reports during an admission to hospital with a post-operative infection one of the medical trainee’s starkest observations was the lack of staff members introducing themselves. Through Twitter she discovered this was not a problem unique to her with numerous others telling similar stories. Believing an introduction to be more than common courtesy and giving a good first impression to being essential for building trust and rapport in the therapeutic relationship the campaign #hellomynameis was devised. 4) Engaging staff: Describe how you disseminated the results of your initial analysis and your plans for change to the staff and other groups involved? How were they engaged in recording outcomes? Utilising social movement principles by defining a simple but intolerable issue and providing a solution accessible to all, the #hellomynameis concept was tested through social media channels such as twitter and blog sites. The immediate and passionate response validated the value of this brief but powerful intervention. 5) Strategy for change: Describe how your suggested changes arose from your assessment of the problem. How did you implement your proposed changes? What was the impact on staff? How did they have to work differently? What was the timetable for change? Don Berwick asked health care professionals in the UK to “Engage, empower, and hear patients and carers throughout the entire system, and at all times.” By a simple introduction at the beginning of an interaction the means by which that listening could occur is set up. It was a “no cost, no time” activity which was envisaged as an ongoing campaign. 6) Intervention: Outline the changes you implemented to achieve improvement in sufficient detail so that others could reproduce it. A hash tag #hellomynameis was started (and registered) with an accompanying blog post about the campaign. Readers were invited to leave their pledges of how they introduced themselves to their patients. By doing so they were promising to introduce themselves to each and every patient they meet. A logo for the campaign was designed and promotion via an commentary piece in a high impact journal with an interview published in a publication for health care professionals. 7) Measurement of improvement: How did you measure the effects of your planned changes? Describe the analytical methods used and the results obtained. Metrics of the reach of the campaign have been recorded via www.symplur .com and it is noted a new entrant in the trending table for healthcare hashtags. Averaging 100 tweets a day in one week it can make over 400000 impressions. There have been over 200 comments on the blog site, each an individual story of how the #howmynameis campaign has reached someone.

www.hellomynameis.org.uk  

8) Effects of changes: Describe the impact of your changes on patient/client care and also on the staff groups involved. How far did these changes resolve the problem that triggered your work? NHS staff have been creative by making new name badges, using the logo as wallpaper on their computers, making introduction boards and using prompt sheets with the hash tag. The idea has spread outside the NHS to hospices and was even used at the National Cancer Voices Conference. #hellomynameis has been the topic of several UK Chief Executive’s blogs and the trainee has been invited to speak about the campaign at several Trusts.

www.hellomynameis.org.uk  9) Lessons learnt: Outline the lessons have you learnt from this work? What would you do differently next time? The key learning from this work has been the demonstration of ease of reach from a single individual to nationwide awareness. Social media, supported by traditional academic mediums have been instrumental. Similar to the success of the NHS Change Day and the “Stop the Pressure” and “Clean your hands” campaign a single focused message is shown to be a key motivating force. It is recognised #hellomynameis is only one part of the whole quality agenda and it may be useful to seek support from other organisations to build a ‘curriculum of compassion and change’. 10) Message for others: Describe the main message from this experience that you would like to convey to others? Discuss what your findings mean for patients and/or systems of care. A single focused message based on a true experience can provide an immensely powerful narrative for cultural change in health care settings. The use of social media, once seen as a devise medium, is a mechanism for change but ultimately it is the belief within all health care professionals that behaviour can be altered which will provide the most tangible patient benefit.