Community nurses in Dorset now have the option to use e-bikes to visit patients, part of an initiative to improve staff wellbeing, patient engagement and the environment inspired by a 2018 team trip to Holland.
The Nursing Times reports that after shadowing Dutch nurses during the trip last year in which they used bikes on their mostly flat neighbourhoods, the ‘Pedal Powered Professionals’ was started, and the idea of e-bikes came up to get Dorest-based nurses around the considerably hillier terrain of the Purbecks. Hattie Taylor, from Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust, told the Nursing Times more about the trip to Holland, which involved six nurses shadowing six Dutch counterparts: “We followed colleagues that do similar to what we do here, but here we go out and about in our cars and there, because it’s quite flat, they all go out on bikes.
“It felt like you were doing something that was helping you keep fit as well & it helped you to get a bit of fresh air & get a different perspective than you do when you’re just sitting down in car" #NursingNowEngland ambassador @hattierocket on e-bikes https://t.co/sLd57zrUtZ pic.twitter.com/9QLDRZDgPZ
— Bev Matthews RN MSc #NHS (@BevMatthews_) February 6, 2019
"They realised that it was a lot quicker sometimes on a bike than in a car, because you don’t have to wait in traffic and you don’t have to find a parking space, you just arrive. And it felt like you were doing something that was helping you keep fit as well and it helped you to get a bit of fresh air and get a different perspective than you do when you’re just sitting down in a car."
On their return to the UK the Trust partnered with Fizz Bikes who rented e-bikes to them at £35 a month, and the scheme is now fully up an running for nurses in Dorset. Taylor said that travelling to appointments by bike is weather-permitting, they'd had a positive response from nurses and patients since the e-bikes have been deployed, with the electronic assistance meaning staff don't turn up sweaty to appointments to boot. It's also quicker than sitting in traffic, and the Trust say the nurses are more likely to be seen as more visible members of the community that are role models for keeping fit in the eyes of the wider community.
