Authors (including presenting author) :
Li KH(1), Ho OL(1), Sung W1, Ma FC(1), Mak MY(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Physiotherapy, Tuen Mun Hospital
Introduction :
A proper and appropriate thermal agent treatment (hot pad therapy, shortwave therapy, wax therapy, etc) is crucial for patient’s quality and safety in physiotherapy service. In the past few years, burns or adverse injuries related to thermal agents were markedly involved in the incident reports. Majority of the incidents were due to inadequate safety awareness and underestimated thermal-agent induced hazards. In order to address these concerns, a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) taskforce group was formulated to reinforce the quality and safety of thermal agent application in physiotherapy department. An innovative dissemination style was introduced for physiotherapy staff to learn in an enjoyable environment so as to build up a positive learning culture.
Objectives :
To enhance the importance and awareness of thermal agent safety among physiotherapy colleagues.
To promote and strengthen a positive learning culture to physiotherapy colleagues to prevent adverse incidents happened.
Methodology :
The CQI project was divided in to 3 stages: preparatory stage, implementation stage and evaluation stage. In the preparatory stage, eight task force group members reviewed updated researches of thermal modalities on the safety measures, treatment effectiveness, precaution and contraindications. The members also reviewed the learning points from previous incident reports in the past three years. All the information was well organised and transformed into video formats. During implementation phase, CQI week event with game session was established in a positive and lively learning environment. Video blogs were played daily in the CQI week to promote colleagues’ awareness of thermal agent safety. In order to enhance staff engagement, all the videos were shared online and game session was performed via the Zoom platform. All the physiotherapy colleagues in Tuen Mun Hospital, Castle Peak Hospital and Siu Lam Hospital could participate in this event.
Result & Outcome :
The project was held from August to December 2020. Approximately 100 physiotherapy colleagues watched the video blogs and participate in the game session. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the CQI project, a thermal agent safety quiz via Zoom platform was done. The quiz was held in an enjoyable manner with interesting games and rewards so as to strengthen positive learning culture. 98% of correct answer rate was collected by the physiotherapy colleagues. More than 70% of colleagues reported that they liked this type of learning atmosphere.
The awareness of thermal agent safety among physiotherapy staff was significantly enhanced throughout the CQI project. An innovative dissemination style of positive culture among physiotherapy staff was well established. In the future, further CQI projects regarding to treatment safety could be done in order to build up the positive learning environment.
