"Just doing my job"
Published: 24 November 2011
When health care assistant David Faulkner struggled to communicate with a patient who had suffered a stroke, he became determined to find a tool that helped him overcome the problem. Working within the fluoroscopy unit of University Hospital Coventry, it wasn’t the first time he had come up against such challenges.
"I had fought to get my message across to certain patients before," David says. "Those for whom English isn’t their first language, who had dementia, or who had suffered a brain injury, for example. But I found this situation particularly upsetting. I was trying to prepare the patient for an angiogram and needed him to lie down. He couldn’t understand what I was doing and became increasingly distressed. I spent two hours trying to calm him and in the end the procedure got cancelled."
Dismayed and frustrated, David (pictured left with Head of Diversity Barbara Hay and Richard Gregory from CDS) talked to his boss about what communication tools the unit had for use in such circumstances. He was shocked to discover that nothing existed and asked for some time to research what other departments had in place. What he found was rudimentary, out of date and not very engaging. "The tools weren’t of a standard I found acceptable," David recalls. "My patient care is a priority and I became determined to find something better."
He sought support from the trust's Head of Diversity, Barbara Hay, and was pleased to discover that she was already leading on work to develop a tool. Together, they looked at what other trusts were using, but found little to satisfy their needs. Instead they began developing their own resource and commissioned the communication company CDS to help produce a product.
Before he knew it David was part of a multi-discipliniary group helping with illustrations and attending meetings with designers. After 12 months of hard work and testing, PictoComm was launched.
Presented in a book format, PictoComm consists of over 100 bespoke illustrations which patients can point to, to help them communicate their basic needs. The booklet is broken down into six distinct sections covering allergies, feelings, food and drink, actions, personal items and people. Managers at David’s trust were so impressed they bought 1,500 copies, enabling them to place a booklet at every patient’s bedside table.
"I’m really pleased with the product and proud of myself for pushing ahead with it," says David. "But I didn’t do this to get praise. All I really care about is the difference it will make to patients and the quality of care they receive. I’m just doing my job," he concludes.
PictoComm has received fantastic feedback and in a survey of 100 service users 95 per cent agreed that the illustrations were clear and easy to understand. It has now been bought and implemented in five other hospital trusts with many more expressing an interest in using the tool.
To find out more about PictoComm, go to www.pictocomm.com, or check it out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pictocomm