Amongst the latest grant requests received by the RFHKPA was one from the Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist, part of the Renal and Urology Therapy Team. The request was for two specialist recliner chairs – a ‘Care’ chair and an ‘Advance’ chair. These chairs were going to be supplied with an adjustable footrest, and multiple lengths of arm rests for the Care chair to ensure they can fit a wide range of patients.
Configura Advance Configura Care
The current high back armchairs on the wards are not suitable for delivering high quality patient care for patients with complex seating or medical needs, and this grant provides a wider range of seating options for our patient group. Being highly adjustable, the chairs provide high level seating support for a wide range of patients. Both will be wipeable and compliant with IPC guidance.
Renal patient Karim was one of the first patients to enjoy using the chair
These chairs improve both patient experience and care for inpatients on renal wards 10E and 10S. Patients on these wards are increasingly frail and are presenting with increased comorbidities. The number of patients with complex seating needs is increasing.
Patients with complex seating needs (i.e., tone, contractures, poor sitting tolerance) are not always able to use the standard high back arm chairs provided on the ward and therefore are unable to sit out of bed safely. These new chairs will allow patients to sit out of their beds, better engage in therapy and improve their overall quality of life and function.
So how will the impact of the grant be measured?
Objectively: Sitting-out audits will likely show an increase in the number of patients able to sit out of bed daily.
Subjectively: Patients and/or carers will report a positive experience from sitting-out.
