Communication within VCare and how it can help your staff and residents

Communication is one of the most critical challenges Residential Care providers face but also one of the most important. Building and maintaining strong relationships between staff, residents and relatives should be one of your main priorities. Open and positive communication between staff and relatives can make a big difference when it comes to your ability to offer the best care and support. Keeping relatives well informed is an effective way of creating a sense of trust and reassurance that their loved ones are well cared for.

Maintaining strong communication between staff and family members can be quite a challenge. Extreme workloads and understaffed resources can mean communication is not always at the top of the priority list. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restriction of families being able to visit their loved ones, management have prioritised communication between relatives and staff and understand the importance of it. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how vital the need for strong communication is for your residential care setting.

Here are 3 ways VCare can assist you in ensuring effective communication between your facility, your residents and their relatives:

1. Using VCare Calendars to book appointments
2. Using Assessments on Arrival of visitors for COVID-19 questions
3. Email correspondence with family to communicate

Using VCare Calendars to book appointments

COVID-19 restrictions were put in place to protect the vulnerable and no visitors have been permitted to residential settings for over 12 months. Residents may now receive 2 visits per week under Levels 3, 4 and 5 of restrictions once the facility has had a high level of vaccination.

Before commencing visits, staff will speak with visitors (via phone) to allocate an agreed time slot for their visit. The calendar function within VCare allows you to book the visit under the residents record and detail the visitor’s information in a secure central location. Within the calendar function, you can monitor the amount of visitors entering the home, identify who visited/who received visitors, when visits took place and how long for.

By utilising the calendar function within VCare, when a relative calls you have an instant overview of available time slots and gives you the ability to book the visit with ease. Having full oversight of the history of visits will also be able to help you should you be required to conduct contact tracing.

Using Assessments on Arrival to ask visitors COVID-19 Q’s

When visitors arrive for their pre-booked appointment (as explained above) a COVID-19 assessment will need to be completed. The assessment is recorded in the residents file and is available for staff to complete and view in a matter of seconds. Examples of questions included in this assessment are vaccination status, details of recent travel as well as a place to record the visitors temperature upon arrival. This procedure ensures visitors are healthy and are not putting other staff members and/or residents at risk.

Email correspondence with family to communicate

Another way VCare is supporting communication between staff and relatives is through VCare correspondence. Email templates regarding COVID-19 updates can be created and be sent to relatives and Next of Kins. This allows relative to be kept up to date on current updates around restrictions and COVID-19 related information – ensuring an open channel of communication on both sides is maintained.

Contact us today to find out more about VCare and how we can help support your Nursing Home’s communication requirements.