| University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the first hospital in the country to introduce a holographic ‘Virtual Nurse’ to greet staff and patients on their arrival and remind them about the importance of following good infection control practice. |
| As well as advising staff, patients and visitors about the importance of hand hygiene and cleanliness, the virtual nurse also keeps patients and visitors informed about other trust projects. The Virtual Nurse is just one tactic being used by UCLH to improve awareness of the importance of infection control. Funded by Interserve and provided by The Healthcare Messaging Group, the Virtual Nurse is reflected via high definition video projectors onto a specially developed material which produces a crystal clear image. Visitors will be regularly prompted by the virtual nurse to clean their hands at the many hand gel dispenser points around the hospital. The unit has two working dispenser units built into the design, so visitors can take immediate action. Should the trial prove successful, patients can look forward to seeing additional virtual units throughout the trust, welcoming patients, visitors and staff at its other key locations - providing a wide range of information. |
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Trevor Payne, pictured right with the virtual nurse, director of estates and facilities at UCLH, said: “We are proud to be the first hospital in the UK to introduce a virtual nurse as part of our campaign to tackle infection. Observation and feedback on the deployment of the Virtual Nurse information unit in the main UCLH atrium has been very positive. “This innovative and engaging way of imparting key healthcare messages works extremely well in a healthcare and public building setting. The unit offers complete flexibility on message - including the script, the model used, their gender and role etc. Installation is simple and straightforward, and it is easy to refresh messages to reflect emergent issues or seasonal awareness or information campaigns.” Trevor added: “I have witnessed how effective the unit is in drawing people to it and engaging with them and there are opportunities to use the unit as part of our meet and greet and way finding procedures. The initial messages at UCLH have been focused on hand hygiene compliance and a ‘use the gel’ campaign and the unit has proved to be very effective in this regard.” |
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The trust undertook a study in the main entrance on Euston Road to monitor the use of the Virtual Nurse unit, and to provide a comparison with the current hand sanitising unit in the same location. The results show that a significant proportion of patients, visitors and staff who entered the hospital via Euston Road interacted with and used the Virtual Nurse unit. The results also show a large increase in use of the new unit compared to the existing dispenser, with 33% of visitors using the Virtual Nurse unit and dispenser, compared with 2.1% of visitors using the existing one. Another notable result was the interaction that visitors had with the Virtual Nurse unit. During the two hour period of the research, 173 visitors listened to the messages that were being played including wayfinding, PALS and further reminders on hand sanitiser usage. Here’s what some of the patients and visitors had to say about the Virtual Nurse: “I thought it was a real nurse, until I got close”, “Great, it caught my |
| eye when I came in and I had to go and have a look”, “I came in through the doors and saw the nurse then heard her voice and went to see what she was saying”, “Very clever, got my attention” and simply “Wonderful”. For further information call 0845 337 3329 or e-mail info@healthcaremessaging.co.uk |
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