Could you be our next Star Responder?

Being a responder can be a daunting experience and can carry a lot of responsibility, but it is also a fantastic way to connect with authors in a meaningful way and provides opportunity for learning and change.

Through research and numerous studies over the years we have homed in on some of the aspects an author providing feedback would like to see in a response. So here at Care Opinion, as well as ensuring that authors have a safe simple space to provide feedback, we support our subscribers to provide the best possible responses to the feedback provided, we have a quick reference guide and other fantastic resources to help, and we encourage responders to include key elements from these in their response. This includes being understanding, empathetic, and honest in their responses to name a few! If a staff member has been nominated as a star responder, they have these qualities in abundance, and this can be seen in the quality of the responses they give.

A star responder is nominated by our moderation team for showing empathy, compassion and giving a personal touch to their response(s). These staff members outwardly engaged with Authors/service users and embraced the open and transparent nature of communication. Responses appeared compassionate, recognise the value of patient feedback, and defined a clear plan around how their feedback will impact how the service will deliver care in the future.

Here at Care Opinion, we feel that providing a response like this should be encouraged and celebrated!! Each nominated Star Responder gets a mention in our newsletter for all our subscribers to see as well as a little prize, which includes a Star Responder badge they can wear with pride!

We have seen here at Care Opinion how much this gesture can improve staff morale, provides opportunity for learning, and change as well as, reducing the likelihood of individuals going down the formal complaints route, as they feel listened to, appreciated and that their feedback is going to improve or change services and care for the next person utilising them.

This is what she had to say about being nominated as a Star Responder. “I feel completely overwhelmed. Patient experience is so important to me so I write from the heart and always think about my own family and what they would want. Most importantly I strive to improve based on the feedback. I’m so chuffed and overwhelmed to be nominated”

You can read some of Cheryl’s responses here-

https://www.careopinion.org.uk/939950

https://www.careopinion.org.uk/924125

Well done, Cheryl!!!

We asked Cheryl why being a responder on Care Opinion is important to her and this is her reply: - “The importance of being a care opinion responder cannot be overestimated for a few reasons. Responding to positive feedback gives a boost that your service is meeting the needs of our service users. Positive feedback can also boost staff morale, build confidence, and restore and maintain pride in our service. For this reason, we share all feedback via a few internal comms. This has and is producing positive staff experience in many ways. When we receive critical feedback, we co-design actions as a team and work with the attitude of system improvements as opposed to blame faults on individuals. It’s always lovely to hear tearoom chat discussing the feedback and how it has made staff feel.

The time to respond to a post is easy and takes no time at all. And the benefits of doing so are multi factorial. The voices of patients, advocates and visitors are important to us as a team and of course to the poster who has taken the time to write feedback. Care opinion is an important tool for us to ensure positive change comes about because of critical postings and positive feedback is nurtured and continues to improve. In turn, public confidence increases as they feel listened, valued, and would have no hesitation receiving care by Lanarkshire again. 5 minutes to post a response has so many gains."

You can watch a video roll call of our star responders to date and what they said about being nominated below.

You can get additional responding information and support Here and you can also access our most recent Responding Webinar.

 Well done to all our Star Responders! Keep up the fantastic responding and an eye on your inbox because our next “Star Responder” could be you!!