“Overcoming the barriers to staff engagement through virtual platforms Kelly Fielding – Lead Clinical Educator, Critical Care Unit @Kelly_educator @CritcareLTHTR Introduction Demands on nursing time is high and it is difficult to engage staff to achieve additional training and activities within a clinical shift. An increase in “long day” workers and busier demands on the unit has made the traditional 2pm – 3pm overlap time difficult to facilitate. Staff that are on long term sick, maternity leave and annual leave advised that on their return they were anxious of changes in practice, policy and equipment. When holding a meeting it is difficult to facilitate staff to attend when safety and care needs to be achieved. Staff are willing to attend when not on shift but this has other challenges; such as difficulties with car parking. Virtual Events Facilitation of education and meetings . Event is open – can be left open for 2 week or opened just for the meeting/training. Needs allocated facilitator to facilitate the “virtual” aspects. Meeting/training lead needs to be in agreement, time needs to be allowed for virtual input and feedback. Time scale agreed for the reply of delayed comments and posts. Purpose To improve staff engagement, communication and feedback To allow staff the flexibility to access work meetings and teaching from their own home. Offer a controlled and secure environment within a virtual platform, without compromising the NMC’s code of conduct and advice surrounding social medial usage . To reduce the amount of emails that people received and allow the “important” emails that were essential to take priority. Allow larger audiences at meetings and teaching and cover a wider percentage of the MDT. Allow access to all of the above when it is convenient for the staff. Feedback. Staff comments: Bank staff - “ I am able to make sure I'm useful when on shift as I am not having to catch up on changes” Staff on maternity leave – “I would have been gutted to miss the off duty meeting and improvement planning because I was off as it will have an impact when I come back.” Attendance Figures: Virtual off duty meeting had 12 people in the room and 31 on the event. In total over 100 comments generated. Flap obs training - 39 people attended, but 150+ looked at the content, this was also demonstrated to the CQC . Design We used Facebook as a social media platform, we generated 4 closed and moderated Facebook groups. Group Purpose Moderation Social Swaps 196 members For staff to advertise for swaps for their own convenience. Originally none – but now has 8 volunteer admins band 7/6/5. Membership’s are admin approval only, but open posting and commenting. Communication and off duty 212 members For advertisement of overtime and shift swaps to facilitate unit dependency. Urgent or important messages for staff Membership approval and admin approval for posting. Moderated by the ward clerks and band 7’s. Education and training 185 members Advertisement of courses, questions re education and training. Virtual events. Moderated by education team. Member approval and posting approval. Virtual Events – open posting. Health and Wellness 118 members Advertisement of nights out, social events, leaving do’s and other out of work things people are involved in or offer. Member approval but free posting. No selling – links only to selling groups if necessary Application and future development Allow trust wide training events Look at virtual platform for delivery – trust Moodle possibility to widen scope outside of Facebook. More facilitators to allow more events Filming sessions for streaming live/recorded. Conclusion Virtual platforms help increase the reach of staff and improve compliance in training and inclusion of quality improvement, however relies on the individual being on social media. There needs to be more facilitators and better virtual platforms to use this on a wider level. Contact Details : Kelly.fielding@lthtr.nhs.uk References: NMC (2018): https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/guidance/social-media-guidance/