‘Start Well>End Well’ - Psychological safety through compassion, connectedness and courage

Summary

During COVID-19, clinical teams faced disruption, having to respond to challenging circumstances and high uncertainty, whilst providing quality care to patients. We know that staff psychological wellbeing affects team effectiveness and patient experience and resilience is fostered by connections between (not just within) individuals.

New collaborations between clinical, service improvement and psychology teams recognised the value of introducing the psychologically-informed ‘Start Well>End Well’ team procedure into routine team processes. This evidence-based approach consists of 1) an enhanced safety briefing, 2) peer-to-peer debrief guidance and signposting for trauma-focused support, and 3) team check-out.

Initially launched as a general procedure across all wards with variable uptake, a more tailored co-design and coaching approach was then piloted on 2 neurology wards over 3 PDSA cycles. Formative evaluation (focus groups and written feedback) demonstrated staff felt “cared for” whilst achieving “positive impact” through improved ways of working within new teams.