Practice-related feedback: Giving people with dementia a voice on visiting hours

Improving access for carers of patients with dementia meant staff nurse and PhD student Liz Charalambous sought feedback from rarely heard voices

Liz Charalambous works to achieve flexible visiting times for people with dementia.

Changing visiting times so that relatives and friends of people with dementia can stay with their loved ones is a passion of mine. I decided to explore visiting times as part of my master’s degree in advanced nursing and set out to research what could be improved.

I spoke to dementia champions and nutrition link nurses, and used social media to network more widely with the public. I used national, regional and trade media coverage to spread the word and find out what was needed.

Rich rewards

Working collaboratively, and using the feedback I gathered from a wide range of often unheard voices, led to hospital visiting times