Evaluating the Mobility Support Worker Service
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluating patient and stakeholder acceptability of a novel Mobility Support Worker service to prevent inpatient deconditioning on the Older Person’s Unit at the RUH.
IRAS ID
342006
Contact name
Oliver Perkin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bath
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Of the 16.4 million hospital admissions per year in the UK, 40% of patients aged are over 65, and roughly two thirds of NHS beds are occupied by inpatient from this age group. The average length of stay is 9-10 days for over 65’s, and during this time, 30% of these patients will lose so much strength that they will become functionally disabled by the time they should be discharged. This strength loss is essentially due to patients simply not moving whilst they are hospital. This often causes discharge to be delayed so additional social care can be arranged to meet the patient’s increased needs. Extending the hospital stay increases risk of further hospital acquired disability and infection, and takes up bed space for other patients. The Royal United Hospital in Bath has established a novel service aiming to prevent physical deconditioning using ward-based individually tailored strength exercise in short bursts twice per day called exercise snacks. This ‘Mobility Support Worker Service’ also aims to interrupt the culture of patients remaining inactive in bed throughout the day with a morning ‘Rise and Shine’ service, ensuring all patients who do not require bedrest are not in bed. Before attempting to assess the effectiveness of the service, the proposed project seeks to evaluate the acceptability of the service from the point of view of the patients who are offered it, and the RUH ward staff who contribute to the service or work alongside it. Questionnaires will be used to collect views of 50 patients and 50 staff, and one-to-one interviews of 12-15 patients and 12-15 staff will be undertaken. Furthermore, the project will explore the feasibility of collecting data that would be important for future research assessing the effectiveness of the service, such as patient engagement with the service and discharge records.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/PR/0920
Date of REC Opinion
6 Aug 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion