Using ‘emotional touchpoints’to support staff during Covid-19

This article has beendouble-blind peer reviewed

In this article…

• Using emotional touchpoints to help capture feelings and experiences

• How this tool was used to support care home staff during Covid-19

• Use of emotional touchpoints to support quality improvement

Key points

Emotional touchpoints are a method of capturing people’s feelings and experiences to support them emotionally through storytelling

Participants select cards with emotional words that best describe their experience and help them tell their story

In a care home, this tool helped support staff during the pandemic, allowing them to voice worries and concerns without judgement

The tool also allowed staff to celebratethe positivesand suggest improvements, influencing positive change in the care home

Emotional touchpoints can be used with staff, patients and relatives in a variety ofsettings to support improvement work

Abstract Emotional touchpoints provides a structured method to help unlock emotions that can be difficult to articulate, and achieve a meaningful story based on experience. This article examines its use in gathering stories from staff working within a 60-bed residential care home for older people during Covid-19. Emotional touchpoints provided a way of supporting staff following the first wave of the pandemic and influenced practical improvements. This approach is now being rolled out more widely across care homes, hospitals and other services within the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, to include staff, patients and their relatives.