UHNM Nurse presents at Global Healthcare Mobility Event

A lead nurse from University Hospitals North Midlands (UHNM) has been spreading the word about the importance of mobility and activity in patients while in hospital at a prestigious international conference in America.
 
Rebecca Ferneyhough, UHNM Professional Lead for Quality and Operations presented at the eighth annual Johns Hopkins Activity and Mobility conference in Baltimore, which included presentations from healthcare teams and individuals from across the globe who make patient mobility a key part of hospital care, safety, and quality improvement.
 
UHNM established their relationship with Johns Hopkins in 2023 and started to use their tools and programme across wards and departments at Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford to assess patients and their ability to get moving and set them realistic movement goals for the day and then record progress.   
 
Mrs Ferneyhough said: “Going to this conference was such an amazing opportunity. I have worked with the team at Johns Hopkins for over two years now, so it was fantastic to meet them in person and continue to share our knowledge. It was amazing to meet those who have mentored UHNM throughout our journey, as well as meet incredible people all with the same vision to support hospital activity and mobility.
 
“While I was there, I was able to present the findings of my dissertation in human factors which focused on overcoming barriers in implementing an activity and mobility programme in hospital, as well as updates from our last movement campaign ‘Around the World’. Since the conference I have had lots of contact from other attendees who are eager to find out more information and how they can implement these findings into their own healthcare system.” 
 
She added: “I left the conference feeling positive about making a real difference to patient care and together we can continue to share the importance of moving and how remaining active really does make a difference to patient health and wellbeing. Going forward it would be great if we can get all wards and departments across UHNM using the programme, setting goals for patients, and recording their movement.”
 
Since the conference, seven more wards across UHNM have adopted the Johns Hopkins programme, now totalling 15 wards.