Wireless nurse call specialist, Courtney Thorne, has supplied and installed the nurse call system for the Dementia Service Development Centre (DSDC) at The University of Stirling, a globally-recognised pioneer of best-practice dementia care research and training.
The company’s CT-08 wireless nurse call system has been installed at the DSDC’s Design & Technology Suite, which aims to create an exemplar dementia care environment for use in educating and training the centre’s visitors from around the world, including health and social care professionals and those caring for a loved one with dementia.
The Design & Technology Suite at DSDC comprises two, en-suite bedrooms, a care home model and a hospital model and a third room is a sitting room/kitchenette, specified to demonstrate examples of best practice in design dementia care environments and the use of technology.
The CT-08 wireless nurse call system was chosen for the unit thanks to a number of design features and the accurate data capture that it provides.
At the point of use, the call button is easy to hold and press for patients and includes a pictogram symbol that aids recognition in people with dementia.
The fully-programmable system is designed to meet the needs of both the individual and the care environment and can be used in silent mode, preventing nuisance noise that those living with dementia can find distressing. Staff can carry receivers in their pockets to alert them of a call instantly when they are away from the nurses’ station and the system also includes pressure sensors that can be placed in the bed to alert staff if patients wander during the night.
The data capture the system provides is also a key benefit in the dementia care sector. It can be used by management teams to plan staffing levels and care plans and can also be used to provide evidence-based proof of call frequency and response times.
John Polhill, national sales manager at Courtney Thorne, said: “Dementia is one of the biggest challenges faced by the health and social care professions worldwide, with an estimated 850,000 people currently living with the condition in the UK; a figure that dementia experts predict will double over the next 20 years.
“The DSDC plays an important role in educating professionals and carers about care practices and environments to address the very-specific needs of those living with dementia and we are delighted to be working with them to demonstrate how wireless nurse call systems can play an important role in reducing patient stress and facilitating more patient-centred and efficient care.”
Shirley Law, head of learning and development at the DSDC, added: “The Design & Technology Suite aims to showcase some of the technical innovations available to professionals to help them implement best practice in dementia care.
“Courtney Thorne’s experience of specialist dementia environments and understanding of the needs of patients, staff and management teams was clear from the outset and the company has provided a system that clearly shows how flexible a wireless nurse call system can be in terms of both functionality and data capture.”
