All it takes is an introduction

On NHS Change Day, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust made a pledge to get onboard the '#Hello my name is...' campaign which calls upon staff to tell patients their name.   

The Twitter campaign was started by Dr Kate Granger, a terminally ill doctor, who became frustrated with the number of healthcare staff who failed to introduce themselves when she was an inpatient. 

Graham Ward at Scarborough Hospital is the first ward to adopt the campaign with all staff proudly wearing bright yellow badges which say, “Ask me my name.”

Emma Day, Matron in Elderly Medicine at Scarborough Hospital, explained: “The trial of the ‘Ask me my name’ badges on Graham Ward is going really well and we have heard staff saying their name and introducing themselves more than ever which is great.

“Following the pilot on Graham Ward the Senior Nursing Team will be rolling out the campaign across the whole Trust through a series of presentations.  Badges and posters have also been produced to help remind staff to always introduce themselves.”

Patrick Crowley, Chief Executive, said: “Putting patients at the centre of what we do is at the core of our organisation’s values and taking the simple step of introducing ourselves to patients by name can make all the difference in building a relationship. 

“We are calling on all staff to support this campaign and to tell patients their names. This smallest of actions could make a significant impact to a patient’s hospital experience.”

Notes to Editors:

In December 2012, Dr Kate Granger, a registrar in elderly medicine, was an inpatient at Leeds General Infirmary, and noticed how infrequently health care professionals introduced themselves.

Dr Granger said: “As a healthcare professional you know so much about your patient. You know their name, their personal details, their health conditions, and much more.

“What do we as patients know about our healthcare professionals? The answer is often absolutely nothing, sometimes it seems not even their names. The balance of power is very one-sided in favour of the healthcare professional.”

Dr Granger, who has terminal cancer, started a twitter campaign #hellomynameis to encourage all healthcare staff to introduce themselves to patients and to tell them their name.

For more information visit drkategranger.wordpress.com and theothersidestory.co.uk. Follow Kate Granger on Twitter (@GrangerKate). Don’t forget to tweet #hellomynameis.

03 April 2014