Preparing in hospital to manage at home
Helping you to help patients prepare for managing at home
Introducing Your Care Needs You!
Welcome to Your Care Needs You!, an evidence-based care approach that has been developed by the PACT research team.
Your Care Needs You! empowers, encourages and supports patients and their families to know more and do more in hospital, so that when they return home they have the skills and confidence to manage their own health and care more safely. The approach is specifically designed to help older patients prepare in hospital to manage at home.
Being a skilled and informed patient when discharged from hospital is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in the absence of COVID-19, there is lots of research that tells us that a patient-centred approach like Your Care Needs You! is needed, as older people can find the process of returning home very difficult.
Your Care Needs You! includes a booklet, a short film and an advice sheet. These are resources for patients and their families. But Your Care Needs You! also needs the help of staff, as a team, to make it work.
This page provides guidance and resources to support you to do this. If you want to find out more about how the approach was developed you can visit the PACT research page. If you have any queries please contact the research team.
Welcome to the site
This site has been designed for staff who are delivering the Your Care Needs You! approach on their ward. It includes information about why the approach is needed, what it is and how to get it working.
As Your Care Needs You! is being tested as part of a trial, please do not share the website details with any staff outside of your ward. To understand more about the trial you can visit our PACT research page.
Ward Facilitators should access all parts of the site. Ward staff should access the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ sections, but might also be interested in the useful information in the ‘getting it working’ section e.g. guidance on communication and how to introduce Your Care Needs You!.
Finally, we provide access to a range of carefully selected and free learning opportunities. These will support your continuing professional development, advance your knowledge in research and expand future career options. You can also access your Ward Facilitator certificate on this page.
We hope you enjoy delivering Your Care Needs You! Please contact the research team if you have any queries.
Why Your Care Needs You! is important
Take Home Messages
- Pressures from ‘patient flow’ affect communication between staff and patients
- Discharge is just a point in time…within a patient transition. Transition includes before, during and after discharge
- Doing everything for patients, all of the time, means that patients are less able to manage when they return home
- Getting patients to do more and communicating better with patients in hospital can improve the safety and experience of patients when they return home
What Your Care Needs You! is
Take Home Messages
- Your Care Needs You! targets 4 things
- These are the skills that patients need for managing at home
- Hospital staff can help patients maintain or relearn these skills
- Preparation for being at home can only be done before returning home
Getting Your Care Needs You! working on your ward
Take Home Messages
- Good communication between staff and patients is the foundation of Your Care Needs You!
- A whole ward approach offers Your Care Needs You! the best chance of success
- Follow the 6-point plan for getting Your Care Needs You! working well on your ward
- Use all the resources available and ask for help from your local team leaders or the PACT research team