Nurses' yellow jug lid plan to aid patient hydration

Yellow jug lids could be used to identify hospital patients at risk of dehydration as part of a campaign by student nurses in south Wales.

The scheme was devised by six University of South Wales trainees to help signal patients who need extra monitoring.

It is hoped it will cut conditions associated with dehydration, which cost the NHS about £500m a year to treat.

A trial has now started at Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant.

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The group - Team Hydr8 - wants all hospital patients, who are risk of dehydration and are having their fluid balances monitored, to be given a yellow lid, instead of traditional blue lids, on their bedside water jugs.

They say this will help staff and carers recognise they need extra support to stay hydrated.

They chose yellow as it is a strong colour for visually impaired patients and research also suggests it is good for attracting the attention of people with dementia.

About 76% of nurses polled by the team said they did not know which patients were having fluids monitored unless it was written on handover sheets

Third year student nurse Donna Walker said: "A few of our group have worked as health care support workers and although nursing staff make every effort to ensure patients are getting the correct fluids, we all agreed that it can be quite difficult to know which patients are having their fluids monitored on a ward.

"Some patients, for example, may be on fluid restrictions following complications such as heart failure, whilst others might be being encouraged to drink more because they are dehydrated.

"Our idea was to introduce an easy visual cue, which can easily show a nurse or a health care support worker on a busy ward, which patients they should be monitoring for fluids.

"The lids, which can cost as little as 70p each, could also be much cheaper than the cost of treating urinary tract infections or catheterisation, which it has been estimated costs the NHS £500m a year."

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Student nurses Donna Walker, Cellan Howells, Tamara Konten, Rachel Lloyd-Jones, Charlotte Phillips and Cerys Davies came up with the idea

After sharing their idea on social media, the team were approached by Cwm Taf University Health Board which has now started a trial on a surgical ward at Royal Glamorgan Hospital.

Deputy ward manager Clare Barker said it was an "innovative idea" and the yellow lids would be clearly identifiable to patients, relatives and staff.

And the idea has even sparked interest for further afield.

Student nurse Charlotte Phillips, added: "We've had nurses, healthcare and medical practitioners contacting us from across the UK, and even Australia to say that they love this simple idea.

"And we've had a message from a ward at the Tameside and Glossop Hospital in England to say they have ordered yellow lids already to take part in this idea."

The group said they had been amazed by the response to their simple idea