Lifting the lid on students’ jugs idea
ADULT nursing students have come up with a simple idea that could help hospital staff monitor a patient’s fluid intake.
They are proposing that hospitals could look at introducing jugs with yellow lids, rather than the traditional blue lids, for patients who are either having their fluids restricted or monitored.
One of the third-year student nurses at the University of South Wales (USW), who will be graduating next March, Donna Walker, said: “A few of our group have worked as healthcare support workers and although nursing staff make every effort to ensure patients are getting the correct fluids, we all agreed that it can be quite difficult to know which patients are having their fluids monitored on a ward.
“Some patients, for example, may be on fluid restrictions following complications such as heart failure, while others might be being encouraged to drink more because they are dehydrated.
“Our idea was to introduce an easy visual cue which can easily show a nurse or a healthcare support worker on a busy ward which patients they should be monitoring for fluids.
“We chose yellow as it is considered a colour that is positive for people living with dementia as well as people with impaired vision.
“The lids, which can cost as little as 70p each, could also be much cheaper than the cost of treating urinary tract infections or catheterisation, which it has been estimated costs the NHS £500m a year.”
Clare Barker, deputy ward manager at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, said: “This is an innovative idea – the use of yellow lids will be clearly identifiable to everyone, including patients, relatives and staff.”