IMPOWER’s Heroes of 2022: Nicky Jones, Lois Grainger & Ward 5, Manchester Royal Infirmary

On behalf of the Trafford and Manchester Health and Social care system, the respective Local Care Organisations have been focused on discharging a greater number of patients to home with the right support to enable them back to independence. The IMPOWER team have been supporting this through our wider work on the Resilient Discharge Programme (RDP).

As part of the RDP, Ward 5 at the Manchester Royal Infirmary was tasked with working towards this goal but needed to reframe how the staff working on the ward were enabled to do so. This meant changing the mindset and behaviour of the whole ward. This is not an easy task, and it takes courage, enthusiasm, and belief in the change.

The therapists on Ward 5, Nicky Jones and Lois Grainger, have risen to this challenge through not only role modelling the right behaviour, but acting as true change champions and enabling therapists and ward staff to sustain the Home First ethos by relentlessly focusing on doing things differently.

The impact of this has spoken for itself. Working together as a team, Ward 5 has significantly increased the number of patients they have discharged to home with support from community services. Through strength-based practice and understanding of the community offer, the whole ward has also reduced the patients’ average length of stay.

This means that more patients are going home sooner with the appropriate support – to a place they feel more comfortable and able to recover in – and given more of a chance to gain back their independence.

The whole ward has made this change in a time of unprecedented operational pressure. This is why the whole of Ward 5, with special thanks to Nicky and Lois, are our heroes of 2022!