NHS project allows nurses to improve people’s health with social media

This article was taken from: http://digitalhealthage.com/nhs-project-allows-nurses-to-improve-peoples-health-with-social-media/

By Digital Health Age

Hundreds of practice nurses across the country have been taught how social media can improve health thanks to NHS Digital’s Widening Digital Participation projects.

Following an initial pilot using Facebook to promote breast screening, one area saw a 12.9% increase in the take up of screening services and moved from 58^th in the country for uptake to 11^th. The same techniques are now being harnessed elsewhere in the country to encourage patients to go for other cancer screening tests.

Around 350 General Practice nurses and other practice staff have so far been trained in adopting technology to become Digital Health Champions, including learning how social media can help promote practice services.

The social media skills being taught were first used by the North Midlands Breast Screening Service in Stoke-on-Trent in a pathfinder project run by charity Good Things Foundation as part of the work the NHS is doing on digital inclusion.

A Facebook page was created to provide information and reduce anxiety about breast examinations. The team also posted information about screening on community groups and the Facebook Messenger service enabled women to easily make appointments and ask questions about the screening process.

Since the page was launched, attendances for first time appointments at the North Midlands Breast Screening Service increased by an average of 12.9% between three-year screening cycles from 2014 to 2018. The service has also shot up the league table for uptake levels, going from 58^th to 11^th in the country between 2016-17 and 2017-18. Nationally, uptake of invitations for breast screening are in decline.

The project continues to develop, with the latest innovation a link-up with Lancaster University to develop an AI chatbot which would assist staff in answering queries sent via Messenger.

The learning from the Stoke-on-Trent pathfinder is now being shared through digital clinical champions training run on behalf of the Staffordshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership digital workstream, as well as through a partnership with Redmoor Health – a national company who provide training and support to the health and care workforce to enable them to use digital technology and social media on the front line.

Bay Medical Group in Morecambe is one of the practices which has benefitted – leading to one of their Facebook posts about cervical screening reaching over a million people.

The Widening Digital Participation (WDP) Programme aims to make digital health services and information accessible to everyone – particularly the most excluded people in society. Twenty digital inclusion pathfinders are being run across England to test new ways to help people access digital tools to improve their health, aiming to develop programmes which can be rolled out more widely.

The success of social media campaigns in raising awareness of screening – including the one in Stoke-on-Trent – has also been highlighted in a new Government report, which recommended that there should be further pilot projects.

Nicola Gill, director of the WDP Programme, said: “NHS Digital is incredibly proud to have been able to support this innovative model that is now being adopted and used by NHS organisations across the country.

“Going to where people go every day, in this case a Facebook community group, allows us to connect and engage with people in a way that’s familiar and convenient for them. Pioneering models of health prevention and management like this are making a real difference in improving health outcomes for excluded communities.”

Helen Milner, CEO of Good Things Foundation, added: “It’s brilliant to see the insights spreading from our Stoke pathfinder.

“Co-designed innovations can really change lives. At Good Things Foundation, we want everyone to benefit from digitally-enabled health – from patients to practice nurses. NHS investment in Widening Digital Participation is helping to make this happen.”