Friends Fund Educational Activity Table £4698.00

The Activity Table will support both patients awaiting their diagnostic investigations, alleviating anxiety and supporting young people to feel at ease and will be utilised within appointments to support those patients with additional sensory needs.

The Outpatients & Diagnostic Centre launched in November 2024 and hosts a collaborative waiting room, alongside a paediatric waiting room. This supports children and young people who have been referred for any diagnostic intervention (Fracture, Diagnostic Imaging, Cardiac Investigations and Respiratory Investigations). We appreciate that attending the hospital for any test can cause anxiety, particularly for young people, and therefore wish to support them in feeling comfortable, supported, and put at ease throughout their visit.

A key driver of the diagnostic centre programme has been patient experience outcomes and as a result we have conducted patient surveys and hosted a meeting with the Islands “Youth Forum” to learn from their feedback and implement improvements. We are committed to demonstrating that we act on feedback and aim to continually improve.

Our “Youth Forum” shared that the current waiting area is targeted towards our youngest patient cohort (Under 5s) and is not tailored towards the older children who enter this footprint every day. As a result, we applied to the Friend Fund to support the introduction of an educational activity table. This allows download of applications such as games, colouring, education, sensory games and “brain training” resources. The touch table will appeal to the full range of ages that access our services and has been introduced successfully within our paediatric ED and children’s ward.

Further to its application as an aid in our children’s waiting area, this tablet would also be utilised to support patients attending for blood tests with additional sensory needs. This can serve as an effective distraction, or calming aid to reduce patient distress. As the tablet is manoeuvrable and height adjustable, it can be transported through the department as required to maintain patient support.

This aligns to the Friends of St Marys objective of supporting and maintaining patient welfare whilst using our services. This also demonstrates that the Isle of Wight Trust values and acts upon our patient feedback and directly supports our “Youth Forum” in creating further positive change to our services.

In the picture: Judy, Health Care Assistant, Amy CBS Support Officer and Sandra Knowles, Friends of St Mary’s Business Manager.