Healthy Lifestyle 

Healthy Eating 

The theme of this year’s European Health and Safety week was “Lighten the load – Preventing Musculoskeletal Disorders”. We took the opportunity to promote healthy eating with a stand entitled “Lighten your load – what’s on your plate”.

The focus was on portion size and the food pyramid. The aim was to inform people what a portion is and to show them an example of a balanced lunch, showing how many portions from each food group was in the lunch.“Ten Top Tips” for healthy eating were also included.

SVUH are applying for the healthy eating award from the Irish Heart Foundation – One of the stipulations is that the hospital should offer a ‘No Chip Day’ each week. Thursday is now a ‘No Chip Day’ in the hospital. Hospital Challenge Day was chosen as the launch day. Change can be difficult for people but staff are enjoying the many other choices on offer in the staff restaurant.

A safety leaflet was developed as part of this initiative with a suggestion to ‘scream if attacked’. A picture of a brown bear supported the article. At the launch, Cormac Maloney, Deputy CEO, mentioned that one was unlikely to meet a ‘Brown Bear’ on the hospital Slí route. One staff member pointed out, the big yellow feet painted to guide walkers around the route might indicate “Yellow Bears” in the hospital vicinity!!

The hospital Slí na Sláinte is there for hospital staff and visitors to enjoy  anytime.

Download Sli na Slainte

Mr. Eamon Coghlan, Ms. Denise Comerford (Health Promotion Co-coordinator) and Mr. Gary O’Toole (Orthopaedic Surgeon) unveiling our Slí na Sláinte signs.

Active Living 

Hospital Challenge Day 2006 – “Bike to work – Bag a Breakfast”

Who Cycled To Work on ‘BIKE TO WORK DAY’?

74% were female and almost half were in their twenties, not that surprising given the make-up of hospital staff. Unfortunately in Ireland, the trend is to stop cycling once a person hits 30 years of age. The allied health group, including the pathology department, made up almost 50% of cyclists, with physiotherapists and pharmacists beating all other departments!

Of those who cycled, 58% cycle to work most days, a further 26% everyday, and 34% walk on the days they don’t drive – a healthy bunch you cyclists! 38% get into a car on their non-cycling days, so providing good facilities for cyclists could be worthwhile for the hospital in order to reduce the pressure on car-parking spaces. Of course if some of the non-cyclists started using their bikes for commuting to work even some days of the week that would also be a help.

So what happens on the days the cyclists don’t cycle? More than three-quarters of them have to leave home earlier and despite this, 83% get here more slowly – a good motivation for cycling! This shows up in the fact that two-thirds said that convenience was one of the reasons they cycled, with almost half liking the fact that it saved them money. The top reason for cycling was health, maybe not surprising for a group of hospital staff. Interestingly, only 38% were motivated by concern for the environment. When staff were asked about other reasons, many mentioned emotions like ‘enjoyment’ and ‘happiness’ on the positive side, and negative feelings towards driving, parking and public transport.

Where were people cycling from?

Two people deserve an award for fitness: the person who cycles from Lucan each day and the one who comes from Tallaght! But overall the cyclists are a healthy bunch, with the average distance being 6km and 87% also taking other forms of exercise.

So what did they feel would help encourage them to cycle more? Mostly the wishes were centred on bike parking facilities, with a third wanting more stands and similar numbers wanting covered stands and a lock-up area. With the bike parking in the area under the new building due to open before the end of the year, and replacement and more bike stands promised for existing and new areas of the hospital grounds, hopefully some of the wishes of the cyclists will soon be met.

Professor Risteárd Mulcahy with bike winner Phena Doran.

Hospital Challenge Day 2007 – Launch of Slí na Sláinte route

Launch of SLÍ NA SLÁINTE forSVUH

The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) Slí na Sláinte was launched by Mr. Eamon Coghlan, 4 time Olympian runner on Hospital Challenge Day, 17th May 2007.

Mr. Gary O’Toole, Orthopaedic Surgeon and Chairman of the Health Promotion Committee (SVUH) acted as Master of Ceremonies for the event.

Mr. Michael O’Shea, Director of the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) gave a short address, highlighting that by making walking an available, attractive choice within and around the hospital, the daily 30 minutes of physical activity recommendation will be easier to achieve.

Mr. Cormac Maloney, Deputy CEO, SVUH, welcomed the addition to the hospital and congratulated the Department of Preventive Medicine & Health Promotion on their ongoing commitment to making the hospital a supportive environment for healthy living for both staff and patients.

In the week leading up to the event, departments in the hospital were asked to nominate a representative to co-ordinate the event at department level. 23 representatives participated. The role of the representative was to promote Hospital Challenge Day in their department and to get as many staff as possible to sign a pledge to take 15 minutes physical activity on the day. Each representative was entered into a draw. Mr. Paul Gough, Dietitian, and member of the Health Promotion Committee was the winner of a €50 voucher for “Lifestyle Sports”.

In total 736 people signed up to do 15 minutes physical activity on the day. Each person who signed up was entered into a draw. Ms. Helen Costigan, Intensive Care Unit was the winner of a €50 voucher for “Lifestyle Sports”.

The DART Challenge

The Slí na Sláinte is complimented by “Time to Walk” signs i.e. how long it takes to walk to “Sydney Parade” DART station from SVUH. The Irish Heart Foundation gave a conservative time of 9 minutes.

We wanted to see how long it actually took SVUH staff to walk this route. Between 7:00am and 9:00am on Thursday 17th May, a team from the Department of Preventive Medicine & Health Promotion were at the DART station to give questionnaires to hospital staff who took the DART to work.

How long did it take our staff?

Allowing for traffic light delays, the average length of time taken to walk from the “Sydney Parade” DART station to SVUH was 5 minutes. Times ranged between 3 minutes and 10 minutes.

All those who returned forms were entered into a draw for a €50 “Lifestyle Sports” voucher.  The winner was Ms. Rosaleen McGuire Roche, Psychiatry Department. 

Guided Slí na Sláinte walks

Two lunchtime walks were arranged. Over 50 staff members participated. This proved to be a great way of meeting and chatting with people from other departments. Sheridan’s Juice Bar kindly gave vouchers for free smoothies or juices for distribution to those who took part in the Slí walks.

Sheridan’s Juice Bar also had an opening offer in conjunction with Hospital Challenge Day. They gave a 50% price reduction on all smoothies and juices on the day.                  

Alcohol

Safe & Moderate Alcohol Consumption Project (SMAC) supports the strategic taskforce on alcohol.
A multidisciplinary group, comprised of representatives from Nursing, A&E, Occupational Health, Psychiatry, Medical Social Work, Liver Unit, and Community Alcohol Treatment Unit, co-ordinated by this department, was set up to develop a multi-pronged approach to safe and moderate alcohol consumption. The aims of SMAC are to develop:

Standardised and accurate charting in relation to alcohol.

Staff training sessions in brief intervention.

A seamless referral pathway to appropriate hospital and community services.

Appropriate health promotion material.

A focus stand, “Pour yourself a drink”, was developed to provide education to patients, staff and visitors on what a unit of alcohol is.

Smoking

The Smoking Advice Service now includes:

  1. One-to-One consultation for all inpatients of hospital for both support in quitting smoking and support in managing their smoking while in hospital.  Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) should be routinely   ordered for smokers.
  2. One-to-one telephone consultations for all outpatients who wish to quit smoking
  3. One-to-One consultations for all staff who want to quit smoking or would like help in avoiding smoking during working hours. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) will be provided free of charge.

    Ongoing medical and nursing training is undertaken to ensure guidelines are followed i.e
  4. Induction sessions – General, medical and nursing
  5. Nursing management/Head of Dept Meetings
  6. Ward/Dept/Team presentation

SVUH was awarded the European & National Network for Smoke Free Hospitals Silver award, and the Tom Hurst Award from the International Network for Smoke Free Hospitals in recognition of its smoking cessation programmes.

Health promotion boards and dispensers

Monthly topics are promoted throughout the hospital, particularly supporting National Healthy Eating Week, National No Smoking Day, World No Tobacco Day, Cancer Awareness Month, Alcohol Awareness and Organ Donor Awareness.

Health Promotion Events

Information stands are regularly developed in conjunction with other hospital teams to give patients, visitors and staff an opportunity to talk to professionals on various health themes e.g. heart health, cancer awareness, alcohol awareness, physical activity.