In the MIRROR project (www.mirror-project.eu), one of the testing organisations of reflective learning apps are locations of the RNHA in the UK. In the project many apps are developed for the use in social care. One example is CaReflect that monitors movements within a care home. Have a look at the website showroom if you are interested in apps that trigger reflection: http://www.mirror-project.eu/showroom-a-publications/mirror-apps-status.
More about the example CaReflect (also on our website): CaReflect was developed to support care staff and reflective learning in residential care homes. In care homes, often, it's difficult to get an overview of the various tasks and how much time was spent to do them. CaReflect can help.
It automatically measures the time care staff and residents are in contact with each other. Care staff and residents each wear a sensor, maybe as a badge. After each shift, carers can log onto the private CaReflect system to see and review their own contacts. Each staff member sees a timeline and gets an overview of their last shift. The overview shows the time spent with individual residents and other staff members as well as the time spent documenting. Therefore, CaReflect allows residential care staff to reflect on their daily work from a different perspective. CaReflect doesn't try to provide the answers, but helps to ask the questions.
Have a look at our demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwGwy5Hby8
Replies
I have just watched your video on YouTube. I found it very interesting and I can appreciate how it can be a very useful tool for analysing the day-to-day levels of contact and interaction between carers and the people they care for.
In recent weeks there has been a lot of adverse publicity in the UK about the very tight schedules allocated to carers looking after people in domiciliary settings as a result of which I think most people would like to see the CQC change it's legislation so that carers are able to spend more quality time with the individuals in their care.
I wonder if the app demonstrated in your video (or an adapted version of it) could be used as a tool for measuring contact between carers and service users in domiciliary settings too?