� To demonstrate the advantages of inter-hospitalworking.� Raise awareness of the redevelopment and rede-sign of the trauma service in Bath.

Recommended reading:British Orthopaedic Association, 2007. The Care

of Patients with Fragility Fracture. BOA, London.Curtis, K., 2001. Nurses experiences of working

with trauma patients. Nursing Standard 16 (9),33–38.

Department of Health, Institute for Innovationand Improvement, 2005. Delivering Quality and Va-lue: Focus on Hip Fracture. DoH, London.

National Hip Fracture Database. <www.nhfd.co.uk>.

Nicholl, H., Tracey, C., 2007. Networking fornurses. Nursing Management 13 (9), 26–29.

Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham KBE, 2008.High Quality Care For All: NHS Next Stage Review,Final Report. DoH, London.

doi:10.1016/j.joon.2009.07.036

Close encounters with ET. Being emotionallyintelligent orthopaedic nurses (Concurrent)Julie Santy

University of Hull, UK

Aim: To acquaint delegates with the concept ofEmotional Intelligence and to help them to identifyways that orthopaedic nursing practice can be en-hanced by it.

Abstract: There is a lot of human emotion in-volved in nursing. ‘‘Emotional Intelligence’’(ET) isa person’s ability to understand their own emotionsand those of others, and to act appropriately usingthese emotions. It is a concept that has been stud-ied by management psychologists for a number ofyears and has also been applied to nursing. Somenurses argue that there are problems deep withinnursing with a growing number of nurses who donot use ET in their work. Others argue that this isthe fault of either nursing leadership or nursingeducation for not focussing on this ‘soft’ side ofpractice. Either way, orthopaedic nurses who areemotionally intelligent are likely to provide an en-hanced quality of care.

Many would say that the features of ET are nat-ural traits – you either have them or you don’t –and that they can’t be taught or developed. Fur-ther, it can be viewed as a trait of a mature individ-ual. There is even a view that ET is more important

than IQ and that those with it are more successfulin both their work and personal lives. The nursingliterature talks about the link between ET andnurses’ caring behaviours as well as with qualityof care and patient satisfaction. Perhaps thinkingabout ET can help us to improve both the qualityof orthopaedic nursing care and our own job satis-faction. This presentation aims to help delegatesdo just that by providing them with food forthought and ideas to take away with them.

Intended learning outcomes:

� Discuss the concept of Emotional Intelligenceand how it applies to orthopaedic nursing.� Understand the impact that a nurse’s ET canhave on the patients’ experience of care.� Consider how ET might be developed in individ-ual nurses and teams.

Recommended reading:Kooker, B., Schoultz, J., Codier, E., 2007. Iden-

tifying emotional intelligence in professional nurs-ing practice. Journal of Professional Nursing.23(1), 30–36.

McQueen, A., 2004. Emotional Intelligence inNursing Work. Journal of Advanced Nursing 47(1),101–108.

Ouoidbach, J., Hansenne, M., 2009. The impactof trait emotional intelligence on nursing team per-formance and cohesiveness. Journal of ProfessionalNursing. 25(1), 23–29.

doi:10.1016/j.joon.2009.07.037

Releasing time to care: The productive ward atthe Whittington Hospital (Concurrent)Deborah Wheeler, Veronica Shaw

Whittington Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Aim: To share with the audience why the Whit-tington Hospital decided to implement the produc-tive ward, what has worked well and what to bewary of.

Abstract: Introduction – what is it, and why doit? Ward staff spend an average of around 30% oftheir time on direct patient care, not because theydon’t want to be with their patients more, but be-cause of inefficient processes and environments.This negatively impacts on both the patient andstaff experience. The productive ward enables aprogramme of improvement techniques to be ap-plied in the clinical setting, which are owned, dri-ven and monitored by the ward team; and which

150 Abstracts

release more time for staff to spend on direct pa-tient care.

Expected learning outcomes:

� An understanding of what the Productive Wardis.� What factors help with successful implemen-tation.� What to be wary of.

Reading references:NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement,

2008. ‘‘The Productive Series’’, website: www.institute.nhs.uk.

doi:10.1016/j.joon.2009.07.038

Oral VTE prevention – Is it the future for ourpatients? (Concurrent)Jean Rogers

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Aim: To discuss whether oral VTE prevention isthe new way forward for Orthopaedic and Traumapatients.

Abstract: Is there a new way of working in tryingto prevent VTE in Orthopaedic and Trauma pa-tients? VTE kills up to 60,000 people each year inthe UK. Five times more than the combined totalnumber of deaths from breast cancer, AIDs, androad traffic accidents. The total cost of managingVTE in the UK is around £640 million. Patientswho have undergone total hip or knee replace-ments are at a high risk of VTE. Without preventa-tive treatment up to 60% of orthopaedic patientswould develop VTE and 0.2–10% would develop afatal PE. The risk however extends beyond the hos-pital environment as VTE prophylaxis is usual dis-continued following patient discharge due thecomplex administration of current anticoagulantsdespite current guideline recommendations. War-farin has been used with some success in the pastbut now there are new oral anticoagulants beinglaunched. Oral anticoagulants are given in a fixedoral dose and can be administered convenientlyboth in and out of hospital providing patients witheffective protection from potentially dangerousthrombi. Is this the way forward for our patients?

Intended learning outcomes:

� Understand what oral VTE means in the ortho-paedic and trauma setting.� Discuss the pro’s and con’s for using oral VTE.

� Discuss what impact oral VTE could have onpatient care.

Reading referencesEriksson,B.L., Dahl, O.E., Rosencher, N., Kurth,,

A., van Dijk, C., Frostick, S., Prins, M. Hettiarach-chi, R., Hantel, S., Schnee, J., 2007. Dabigatranetexilate compared with enoxaparin for the ex-tended prevention of venous thromboembolism fol-lowing total hip replacement. Lancet 370(9591),949–956.

Warwick, D., Friedman, R.J. Agnelli, G., Gil-Gary, E., Johnson, K., FitzGerald, G., Turibio,F.M., 2007. Insufficient duration of venous throm-boembolism prophylaxis after total hip or kneereplacement when compared with time course ofthromboembolic events. Findings from the globalorthopaedic registry. Journal of Bone and JointSurgery 89-B(6), 799–807.

Wittowsky, A.K., Devine, E.B., 2004. Frequencyand causes of over anticoagulation and under anti-coagulation in patients treated with warfarin.Pharmacotherapy 24(10Œ), 1311–1316.

doi:10.1016/j.joon.2009.07.040

Ticket home – Using predicted discharge dateseffectively (Poster)Melanie Webber-Maybank, Helen Luton

Llandough Hospital, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust,Wales, UK

Aim: Orthopaedic nurses on ward west 3 Llan-dough University Hospital identified a need to re-duce the length of stay (LOS) of their electivepatients. The process was nurse led with collabora-tive input from the multi-disciplinary team, andaimed to reduce the LOS for elective orthopaedicpatients by focussing on a predicted discharge date(PDD). The overall aim was to reduce the LOS of to-tal hip replacement patients and for them toachieve their PDD.

Abstract: The average LOS for total hip replace-ments on the ward was identified as 6.2 days. Theteam considered this could be improved. The clin-ical area had robust systems and processes in placeto ensure prompt discharge, but it was felt that theprocess could be further facilitated.

Nursing clinical leaders using a brainstorming ap-proach identified that increasing the patients andthe team’s awareness of the PDD could reduce thelength of stay within the client group. An action ap-proach to change was adopted and the tickethome system designed. Evaluation of the system

Selected abstracts from the 23rd Royal College of Nursing Society 151