September 30th 2019: Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) is today launching a Hospital wide campaign to ensure that patients remain active during their hospital stay and keep their pre-admission independence.
The Walk Your Way Back Home campaign will see patients encouraged to spend as much time as possible out of bed during their stay in Hospital. Patients and their families will be given information leaflets that provide handy tips for remaining active, highlight the distances between points in the Hospital and a means to track their progress.
Consultant Physician in Geriatric and Stroke Medicine at TUH, Professor Sean Kennelly said: “We know that people who keep active, even during a hospital stay, have better outcomes. They will likely be discharged quicker and have less risk of losing mobility, fitness or strength and are also less likely to get an infection. We will be encouraging this ‘Walk Your Way Back Home’ initiative to all patients, and especially older people.”
Former Leinster and Ireland rugby player and GP, Dr Emmet Byrne said: “This is about encouraging patients to play a part in their recovery. We know that by not moving, older people can age their muscles rapidly. So getting up, getting dressed and even taking short walks around the ward can help in preventing people losing some of their strength.”
Candidate Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Gerontology, Claire Noonan, who created the campaign for TUH said: “The leaflets are a wonderful resource for patients and their families. They highlight the importance of staying active, getting dressed, walking around and even the distances between points in the Hospital. We will also encourage patients to track their progress, even by downloading the pedometer step counter app. We know that simple steps like these will help people get home quicker.”
Ends
Notes to Editor:
Patient materials for the new ‘Walk Your Way Back Home’ leaflets are available here
Walk Your Way Home Patient Information Leaflet
Walk Your Way Home Track Your Progress Leaflet
A video of Professor Sean Kennelly and Dr Byrne is available at: http://bit.ly/2ldCKmK
The steps involved in Walk Your Way Home - https://youtu.be/GnnfwUsJ8G0
About Tallaght University Hospital
TUH is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, adult, psychiatric and age-related healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds with 3,000 people on staff. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialties. It is also a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre. The Hospital also has 67 paediatric beds under the governance of Children’s Health Ireland and 52 mental health beds under HSE governance.
TUH is one of the two main teaching hospitals of Trinity College Dublin - specialising in the training and professional development of staff in areas such as nursing, health and social care professionals, emergency medicine and surgery, amongst many others. TUH is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group which serves a population of over 1.2 million across seven counties.
A new satellite centre is to be built at TUH as part of the National Children’s Hospital project as a key element of an integrated clinical network for paediatric services nationally. The Hospital’s Emergency Departments catered for 51,084 Adult Attendance and 32,424 Paediatric Attendance in 2018. A further 293,751 patients were treated through the Hospital’s Adult and Paediatric outpatient clinics in 2018. The Hospital’s operations are supported by 200 general practitioners in surrounding communities and aligned with CHO7.
