“First and foremost is patient experience. It’s enhancing patient experience.”

We spoke with the team at St Richard’s ICU in Chichester, who have recently implemented the Happiness Programme on their ward.

The team are currently using Happy Memories, an app on the interactive projector that allows subscribers of the Happiness Programme to upload personalised pictures, for end of life patients to improve their end of life experience as best they can.

For rehabilitation, they use games like balloon pop and leaves. They project on a table and patients use arms to sweep the leaves, or they project on the floor and patients use their legs.

The team told us using the Happiness Programme has reduced the need for sedatives in patients who are agitated and may need to be restrained, the interactive projector gives them another tool to use instead of PRN medications to keep patients safe and calm.

They also told us about how the interactive projector has helped with ICU delirium, something that is incredibly common. One patient who was using the interactive projector as we spoke to the team was quite physical with his agitation. They used the Elvis themed games with him, and they said it was the calmest he’d been in some time. He was lying in bed, eyes closed, mouthing along to the lyrics and tapping along to the music.

“It’s a tool we can use with delirium. It’s often time that improves delirium, but to have something that you can see improving the patients experience in hospital, to be able to say let’s try this, because we haven’t got many things we can try, it’s not necessarily going to stop the delirium but it makes the experience easier.”