Get Up, Get Dressed, Get Moving!
Our aim for our patients is to ‘Get up, get dressed and get moving!’
Preventing deconditioning
When patients are in hospital for even a few days, they are at risk of deconditioning - a decline in physical and mental function that happens when people are inactive for a period of time
Getting patients up and moving regularly can help prevent muscle wastage and pressure sores - resulting in improved fitness and shorter hospital stays.
For most patients, regaining their strength and functionality can take twice as long as it took to lose them. Therefore, preventing deconditioning is better for the patient than helping them to regain their health and abilities with physiotherapy and specialist exercises later on.
Even if a patient has a history of falls, keeping mobile helps prevent further weakness and improves their balance, mobility and confidence.
This doesn’t need to involve sprints around the ward! Just fetching a glass of water or walking to the bathroom can be exercise enough for some patients.
Getting dressed
Wherever possible, we encourage our patients to get dressed into their own clothes.
Patients are treated differently, and see themselves differently when they’re dressed in their own clothes rather than in pyjamas or hospital gowns. They’re seen as a person rather than a patient and are likely to feel more ‘like themselves’ – and confident and capable of moving.
How can I play my part?
Families and friends can help keep their loved ones mobile by:
· ensuring they have their own clothes and shoes/slippers in the hospital
· taking away worn clothing that needs laundering
· encouraging your loved ones to eat their meals sat in a chair, rather than in bed
· making sure loved ones have their glasses and working hearing aids
· encouraging loved ones to visit the toilet rather than rely on a catheter
· accompanying loved ones on short walks around the ward/hospital site
Do you have any spare, clean clothes that you can donate?
We always need new or nearly new clean clothes for our Dress for Dignity scheme - particularly large and XL sizes. The scheme gives a change of clothes to patients who might have come in as an emergency and weren’t expecting to stay in hospital.
Please note that we do not have laundry facilities at the hospital, so clothes will need to be clean.
If you would like to donate anything please contact our Voluntary Services team or donations can either be brought in person or posted to us at:
Voluntary Services Department, Level 2, Main Reception, Royal Berkshire Hospital, Craven Road, Reading Berkshire RG1 5LE.
More reading
Getting back to normal - Finding rehabilitation in everyday tasks while in hospital
NHS England Blog: Time to move: Get up, get dressed, keep moving - Dr Amit Arora
Victoria (Australia) Dept of Health: Older people in hospital - Staying active