Nursing staff at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals (DBTH) are set to implement a number of innovative measures to help patients stay hydrated – a major challenge for health professionals. Feedback from relatives has been positive and, in 2009, we won the Nursing Times Award for team of the year. If an employee is unclear which chemicals are in the containers or what areas of the facility the containers have resided in, the risk of chemical accidents and cross-contamination greatly increases. Our best selling straight-sided foaming jugs are now available with Teflon coating for super quick and easy cleaning. By ensuring that inpatients drink enough throughout their time in hospital, there is an association that drinking plenty of water and fluids aids recovery.

Jugs - Reynardine Henrywood – Relief-Moulded Jugs - Reynardine

Espresso Gear's hard wearing non stick Teflon coating makes it quick and easy to rinse off these jugs, saving precious time for busy baristas. Designed to prevent cross-contamination, these sleeves are available in four colours, and can be used to identify different types of milk. A number of relief-moulded jugs are found which are extensively coloured, not just with coloured backgrounds or small amounts of colouring to pick out the moulding. When the patient has drunk their first jug, it will be refilled with fresh water - lid changed to amber. The number of patients on intravenous fluids has decreased from 66% to 25% suggesting that patients’ hydration had improved.We had a common interest in blue and white transferwares (which ultimately led to our joint authorship of The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880 ) but our mutual interests ranged much more widely, even as far as postcards and bookmarkers. News of other interesting unmarked jugs and particularly the discovery of any marked examples of these designs would be very welcome. Introduced as part of the Trust’s ‘But First a Drink’ initiative earlier this month, colour-coded jugs are used as a simple visual cue to monitor a patient’s fluid intake.

Using red jugs to improve hydration | Nursing Times Using red jugs to improve hydration | Nursing Times

Numbers and letters in the four corners of the diamond can be decoded to discover the name of the person or company that owned the registration, and a parcel number which distinguishes between designs registered on the same date.

Comments, criticisms, brickbats, suggestions and new information and/or images would all be gratefully received. The jugs selected are easier to use than standard hospital equipment because they have thicker handles and the lid remains in place when patients pour a drink. If staff are concerned about the patient’s fluid intake the red lid is used throughout and a blue lid has also been introduced for patients with strict fluid restrictions.

Colored Jugs - Colored Jugs Colored Jugs - Colored Jugs

Reaching the green lid stage is significant to this as this shows the patient has drank 1500ml of water which reduces their risk of dehydration. This led to a number of comments from relatives such as “my mother has got dry lips and a coated tongue”.I would be delighted to receive comments, compliments or brick-bats, and particularly future contributions, be they information or images.

Coloured Milk Jugs | Clumsy Goat Coffee

Please remember that the submission of any material is governed by our Terms and Conditions and by submitting material you confirm your agreement to these Terms and Conditions. The challenge now is to continue to deliver high standards of care and to continue to listen to ideas and empower staff because, as this scheme has demonstrated, sometimes the simplest ideas have the biggest impact on patient care.A healthcare assistant suggested that we could use a model based on the red tray project (Bradley and Rees, 2003), which is used in the trust to ensure patients are nourished. Espresso Gear's hard wearing non stick Teflon coating makes it quck and easy to rinse off these jugs, saving precious time for busy baristas. If nurses are concerned about patient’s water intake, such as if the red lid is still attached by the late afternoon, there are escalation processes to alert senior colleague for further action. Any patient tolerating less than 500ml a day orally was given a red jug and mug and patients assessed as having a poor fluid intake on admission were also considered for the project. The spout design is taken from the Motta Classic pitcher but with improved quality, and the handle is the same as the Motta Europa jug to create a well built high quality product.