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Found 650 results
  1. Content Article
    This Newsnight report looks at the case of Rebecca Wight, an advanced nurse practitioner who raised concerns about a colleague at at Manchester’s Christie cancer hospital and felt her treatment by Trust management as a whistleblower was poor. She is now taking The Christie to an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal. The video also features an interview with Helené Donnelly, a nurse who tried to raise the alarm more than 100 times at Mid Staffs and went on to be a key witness in the subsequent Francis inquiry. She calls for failing NHS managers to be struck off, highlighting that a decade on from one of the worst failings in NHS history, those raising concerns were still not being listened to.
  2. Content Article
    The nurse-to-patient ratio represents the number of patients a registered nurse cares for during a shift. Most hospitals have guidelines to ensure safe staffing ratios, but staffing shortages have led to heavier nursing workloads. This article outlines which US states have laws and regulations in place for safe staffing ratios.
  3. Content Article
    Most US healthcare organisations use staffing guidelines to decide a nurse's patient load on a given shift, but current staffing shortages are pushing nurse-to-patient ratios to the limit. In this article for Nurse Journal, registered nurse Alexa Davidson asks whether laws and regulations could prevent nursing workloads from getting out of control. She argues that mandated staffing ratios are a proven way to ensure patient safety. She describes the situation in Massachusetts and California, the two US states where laws have been passed mandating nurse-to-patient ratios, and outlines the implications of introducing ratios for nurses and patients.
  4. Content Article
    The Patient Safety Network (PSNet) produces primers which provide guidance on  key topics in patient safety through context, epidemiology and relevant PSNet content. This primer focuses on nurse-related medication administration errors and highlights that despite error reduction efforts through implementing new technologies and streamlining processes, medication administration errors remain prevalent. It covers the background to the issue, low-tech and high-tech prevention strategies and the current context.
  5. Content Article
    On 18 August 2023, Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and convicted of trying to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Looking ahead to the forthcoming independent inquiry into this case, Patient Safety Learning, reflecting on the inquiries of the past, sets out some key patient safety themes and issues that should be considered as part of this.
  6. News Article
    Health secretary, Steve Barclay, has named Lady Justice Thirlwall as the chair of the independent inquiry into the crimes committed by former Countess of Chester Hospital nurse, Lucy Letby. The inquiry was given statutory powers last week and will be led by one of the country’s most senior judges, who currently sits on the Court of Appeal. The announcement came during Barclay’s speech in the House of Commons, where he also announced that the chair of the Essex mental health inquiry will be Baroness Lampard, who investigated the crimes of Jimmy Saville in a similar inquiry led by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The rest of the health secretary’s address centred around patient safety and what the government has done, is doing and will do. Barclay drew attention to the appointment of Dr Aidan Fowler as NHS England’s first ever national director of patient safety in 2018, and thus the following patient safety strategy in 2019. Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 4 September 2023
  7. Content Article
    This is an oral statement given to the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay MP, to update on the Lucy Letby statutory inquiry.
  8. News Article
    The inquiry into how nurse Lucy Letby was able to murder seven babies will now have greater powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. In a significant move, ministers upgraded the independent inquiry after criticism from families of the victims that it did not go far enough. The inquiry, ordered after Letby was found guilty this month, was not initially given full statutory powers. Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he had listened to the families. He said he had decided a statutory inquiry led by a judge was the best way forward and "respects the wishes" of the families. Mr Barclay said the key advantage was the power of compulsion. "My priority is to ensure the families get the answers they deserve and people are held to account where they need to be," he added. He said an announcement about who would chair the inquiry would be made in the coming days - ministers have already said it will be a judge. Richard Scorer, a lawyer who is representing two of the families, welcomed the government's announcement. "It is essential that the chair has the powers to compel witnesses to give evidence under oath, and to force disclosure of documents. Without these powers, the inquiry would have been ineffectual and our clients would have been deprived of the answers they need and deserve," he said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 August 2023
  9. News Article
    RaDonda Vaught has spoken out about her criminal case for the first time last week in an exclusive interview with ABC News. Ms. Vaught, 38, was sentenced to three years of supervised probation on 13 May. She was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult for a fatal medication error she made in December 2017 after overriding an electronic medical cabinet as a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. The error, in which vecuronium, a powerful paralyser, was administered instead of the sedative Versed, led to the death of 75-year-old Charlene Murphey. "I will never be the same person," Ms. Vaught told ABC News, "It's really hard to be happy about something without immediately feeling guilty. She could still be alive, with her family. Even with all the system errors, the nurse is the last to check." Ms. Vaught immediately took responsibility for the medication error after it occurred but contends that her actions alone did not cause the error. Her case has spurred an outcry from nurses across the country, many of whom have expressed concerns about the likelihood of similar mistakes under increasingly difficult working conditions. "So many things had to line up incorrectly for this error to have happened, and my actions were not alone in that," Ms. Vaught said. When Ms. Pilgrim asked her if she felt like a scapegoat, Ms. Vaught said, "I think the whole world feels like I was a scapegoat." "There's a fine line between blame and responsibility, and in healthcare, we don't blame," she said. "I'm responsible for what I failed to do. Vanderbilt is responsible for what they failed to do." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 23 May 2022
  10. News Article
    More than 27,000 nurses and midwives quit the NHS last year, with many blaming job pressures, the Covid pandemic and poor patient care for their decision. The rise in staff leaving their posts across the UK – the first in four years – has prompted concern that frontline workers are under too much strain, especially with the NHS-wide shortage of nurses. New figures show the NHS is also becoming more reliant on nurses and midwives trained overseas as domestic recruitment remains stubbornly low. In a report on Wednesday, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) discloses that the numbers in both professions across the UK has risen to its highest level – 758,303. However, while 48,436 nurses and midwives joined its register, 27,133 stopped working last year – 25,219 nurses, 1,474 midwives and 304 who performed both roles. That was higher than the 23,934 who did so during 2020 after Covid struck, and 25,488 who left in 2019. Andrea Sutcliffe, the NMC’s chief executive, said that while the record number of nurses and midwives was good news, “a closer look at our data reveals some worrying signs”. She cited the large number of leavers and the fact that “those who left shared troubling stories about the pressure they’ve had to bear during the pandemic”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 May 2022
  11. News Article
    RaDonda Vaught was sentenced to three years of supervised probation on the 13 May for a fatal medication error she made in 2017 while working as a nurse at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the USA. In remarks made during the sentencing hearing, Ms. Vaught expressed concerns over what her case means for clinicians and patient safety reporting. "This sentencing is bound to have an effect on how [nurses] proceed both in reporting medical errors, medication errors, raising concerns if they see something they feel needs to be brought to someone's attention," she said. "I worry this is going to have a deep impact on patient safety." Numerous medical organisations expressed similar concerns in statements circulated after Ms. Vaught's sentencing. "To achieve our goal of zero patient harm and death from preventable medical errors, we need to foster a culture where leadership of hospitals and healthcare organizations support healthcare workers and encourage them to share near misses," the Patient Safety Movement Foundation said in a statement. "Healthcare workers are human and healthcare systems need to ensure there are appropriate processes in place to provide their staff with a safe and reliable working environment so they can provide their patients with the best care. Only by identifying potential problems and learning from them can change occur." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 16 May 2022
  12. News Article
    Families are being ‘left without the support they need’, as overstretched services struggle to handle ‘a significant and growing minority’ of children not developing as expected. Figures published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities earlier this month show 79.6% of children who received a two-to-two-and-a-half year review with an ages and stages questionnaire during quarter three of 2021-22 met the expected level in all five areas of development measured. The five areas assessed by the screening questionnaire are communication skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal-social. A lower-than-expected score in any of the five areas will likely mean some sort of intervention, which may include further monitoring from health visitors or referral to a specialist service. However, health visitor numbers are declining. ber 2015. Alison Morton, Institute of Health Visiting executive director, said: “The latest national child development data highlight a worrying picture with fewer children at or above the expected level of development at two-to-two-and-a-half years. While the majority of children are developing as expected, a significant and growing minority are not. “The pandemic and its impacts are not over. In many areas, despite health visitors’ best efforts, they are now struggling to meet growing levels of need and vulnerability and a backlog of children who need support. In our survey, health visitors reported soaring rates of domestic abuse, mental health problems, child behaviour and development problems, poverty, and child safeguarding. “In addition, onward referral services like speech and language therapy, and mental health services, also have long waiting lists and families are left without the support that they need.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 16 May 2022
  13. News Article
    The United States could see a deficit of 200,000 to 450,000 registered nurses available for direct patient care by 2025, a 10 to 20% gap that places great demand on the nurse graduate pipeline over the next three years. The new estimates and analysis come from a McKinsey report published this week. The shortfall range of 200,000 to 450,000 holds if there are no changes in current care delivery models. The consulting firm estimates that for every 1% of nurses who leave direct patient care, the shortage worsens by about 30,000 nurses. To make up for the 10 to 20%, the United States would need to more than double the number of new graduates entering and staying in the nursing workforce every year for the next three years straight. For this to occur, the number of nurse educators would also need to increase. "Even if there was a huge increase in high school or college students seeking nursing careers, they would likely run into a block: There are not enough spots in nursing schools, and there are not enough educators, clinical rotation spots or mentors for the next generation of nurses," the analysis states. "Progress may depend on creating attractive situations for nurse educators, a role traditionally plagued with shortages." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 12 May 2022
  14. News Article
    Nurses from across the country are heading to Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tenn., this week to march for better working conditions and to show support for nurse RaDonda Vaught. Ms. Vaught, 38, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult for a fatal medication error she made in December 2017 after overriding an electronic medical cabinet as a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Her case has spurred a national outcry from nurses who argue the ruling sets a dangerous precedent for the profession and will discourage nurses from speaking up about errors. Ms. Vaught's sentencing is scheduled for 13 May in Nashville, and she faces up to eight years in prison. Hundreds of nurses are planning to march in Nashville the day of the hearing to show their support for Ms. Vaught and to fight for better protection for nurses against criminal prosecution of errors. "We expect a large number of people to show up … just to show our strength in numbers and hope that the judge takes this into consideration and makes it slightly better by not sentencing her to any prison time," said Erica, a Las Vegas-based hospice nurse who is attending the sentencing. Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 13 May 2022
  15. News Article
    A nurse who filmed up the gowns of unconscious women patients and recorded staff using the toilet at a large teaching hospital has been jailed for 12 years by a judge who said he had "brought shame on an honourable profession". Paul Grayson, 51, was also told by the judge he must serve an extended licence period of 4 years when he is eventually released. The judge described how four patients were targeted as they recovered from surgery at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital – one of whom has never been identified from the footage. Sentencing Grayson on Tuesday, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: "You have betrayed every ounce of trust reposed in you. Earlier this week, the court heard one victim, who was secretly filmed in the shower by Grayson over a number of years, face him directly in court as she told him his "sick and disgusting perversions" and "evil actions" were crimes that "have torn me into pieces". The court heard that one victim was unconscious after an eye operation when Grayson filmed her up her gown, and could be seen moving her underwear. The woman told police she had "put her trust in staff at the hospital to keep her safe". The victim said that she has since been due to have an operation at another hospital but she "can't bring myself to go". Read full story Source: Medscape UK, 11 May 2022
  16. News Article
    Five thousand nurses at Stanford and Lucile Packard children’s hospital in Stanford, California, are preparing to strike in demand of wage increases, mental health and wellness support, better healthcare benefits, and a focus on hiring and retaining nurse staff. The union has set a strike date for 25 April. Stanford hospital at Stanford University in California has been consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the US by US News, but nurses say high turnover rates, understaffing, and inadequate proposed wage increases and benefits have contributed to high burnout rates. In a survey of union members, 45% of nurses reporting said they intend to leave their job within the next five years. Kathy Stormberg, a nurse in the radiology department at Stanford hospital for 19 years and vice-president of the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (Crona), blamed the strike on the hospitals’ continued reliance on contractors and its policy of pushing nurses to work overtime amid staff shortages, unfilled vacancies, and difficulties retaining enough nursing staff. “That is not sustainable,” said Stormberg. “Nurses have an overwhelming sense of guilt to work overtime when they are getting texts requesting nurses to come in every four hours on their days off.” In January 2022, a nurse on a contract at Stanford hospital walked out of their shift and killed themself, highlighting the need for better mental health and wellness support services and for improvements to the poor working conditions that nurses have faced through the Covid-19 pandemic. “The working conditions that we have now are just no longer sustainable,” said Leah McFadden, a nurse in Stanford’s surgical trauma unit since October 2019. “Over the last two years, we’re starting to run on empty, we aren’t having a chance to decompress, or even just get away from the hospital as much as we should.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 April 2022
  17. News Article
    Nurses have spoken of the shocking abuse they face from patients as the NHS struggles to cope with a rise in demand for care. Both patients and staff are becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation the NHS is in, with staff shortages and a patient backlog of six million people causing already stretched services extra strain. "As we are the faces that the public see we do get the brunt of a lot of their anger as they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the situation that the NHS is in," one nurse wrote on Nursing Standard’s Facebook page. "Staff are equally frustrated with the whole situation and knackered from working long hours and covering for the many staff still absent." Nurses given the task of conveying ‘unwelcome messages about the limitations of resources’ Another said: "Working in an ED abuse occurs on a daily basis… it is not acceptable but even when you Datix these incidents nothing gets done, staff are reduced to tears and frightened to walk into patient waiting areas, it is not acceptable." It comes as former chief inspector of social services Lord Herbert Laming accused health service managers of putting nursing staff in the public firing line during a House of Lords debate on reducing abuse of nurses in the NHS. Read full story Source: 12 April 2022, Nursing Standard
  18. News Article
    On 25 March2022, a Tennessee jury convicted RaDonda Vaught, a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, of criminally negligent homicide and impaired adult abuse in a 2017 medication administration error that tragically resulted in a patient death. The Washington State Nurses Association have issued a joint statement adamantly opposed to criminalization of patient care errors. "Focusing on blame and punishment solves nothing. It can only discourage reporting and drive errors underground. It not only undermines patient safety; it fosters an environment of fear and lack of respect for health care workers." "The Vaught case has drawn intense national attention and concern. We join with health care workers and patient safety experts around the country and the world in rejecting the criminalization of medical errors. Further, we are committed to redoubling our efforts to achieve health care environments that are safe for patients and health care workers alike. This includes the ongoing, critical fight to achieve safe staffing standards in Washington state." Read full statement Source: Washington State Nurses Association, 8 April 2022
  19. News Article
    A nurse with no qualifications gave a care home resident a fatal dose of the wrong drug, leading to her death before she then tried to cover up her mistake. Katherine Hutchinson gave Fiona Jayne Thorne a fatal overdose of a powerful anti-psychotic drug, which was meant for another patient, an inquest heard. She then tried to cover up her errors which contributed to the death of the 36-year-old with learning difficulties, Derbyshire Live reported . Ms Hutchinson had, at the time, been the nurse in charge at Whitwell Park Care Home, in Whitwell, Derbyshire despite not having any qualifications. She gave Miss Thorne clozapine, which had been intended for another resident, on October 6, 2010. Instead of owning up to what she did, Ms Hutchinson then tried to cover up her mistake by taking Miss Thorne to bed and leaving her there until she was discovered, Senior Coroner Dr Robert Hunter said. Miss Thorne was "found by the care support worker around midnight, when undertaking routine checks on residents”, the inquest heard. And then Ms Hutchinson’s mistake was only discovered after an audit was carried out of the medication trolley and a dosage of clozapine was found. Read full story Source: Mirror, 8 April 2022
  20. News Article
    A nurse has been suspended for three months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after forcing medication into a person with dementia's mouth. An NMC Fitness to Practise (FtP) panel found Reni Kirilova had forced medicine into the patient’s mouth, held her mouth closed and shouted ‘take your tablets’ while working at the Chocolate Quarter Care Home in Bristol, run by the St Monica Trust. Patient was reportedly distressed, waving her hands and shouting The incident occurred on 30 May 2019, seven days after Ms Kirilova began working at the care home on 23 May. She was suspended on 7 June pending a police investigation and she resigned the same day. One witness told the NMC hearing that they saw the nurse’s fingers go over the patient’s mouth for around 30 seconds while the patient was ‘flapping her hands’ and ‘trying to spit them out’. They added the patient was distressed and was ‘waving her hands everywhere’ and shouting ‘no, no, no’. Ms Kirilova denied the allegations and said that she had given the patient some water and then tilted the patient’s chin to help her swallow. The panel found that the allegation she held her hand over the patient’s mouth was not true but that she had held it closed in some way, after three witnesses corroborated this. The panel said they were not satisfied that she had considered how she would cope with stressful situations in the future and there was a risk it could happen again. Read full story Source: Nursing Standard, 7 April 2022
  21. News Article
    Emma Moore felt cornered. At a community health clinic in Portland, Oregon, USA, the 29-year-old nurse practitioner said she felt overwhelmed and undertrained. Coronavirus patients flooded the clinic for two years, and Moore struggled to keep up. Then the stakes became clear. On 25 March, about 2,400 miles away in a Tennessee courtroom, former nurse RaDonda Vaught was convicted of two felonies and facing eight years in prison for a fatal medication mistake. Like many nurses, Moore wondered if that could be her. She'd made medication errors before, although none so grievous. But what about the next one? In the pressure cooker of pandemic-era health care, another mistake felt inevitable. Four days after Vaught's verdict, Moore quit. She said Vaught's verdict contributed to her decision. "It's not worth the possibility or the likelihood that this will happen," Moore said, "if I'm in a situation where I'm set up to fail." In the wake of Vaught's trial ― an extremely rare case of a health care worker being criminally prosecuted for a medical error ― nurses and nursing organizations have condemned the verdict through tens of thousands of social media posts, shares, comments, and videos. They warn that the fallout will ripple through their profession, demoralizing and depleting the ranks of nurses already stretched thin by the pandemic. Ultimately, they say, it will worsen health care for all. Read full story Source: Kaiser Health News, 5 April 2022
  22. News Article
    RaDonda Vaught's conviction for a fatal medical error has already damaged patient safety and should serve as a wake-up call for health system leaders to improve harm prevention efforts, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement has said. Ms. Vaught was convicted 25 March of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult for a fatal medication error she made in December 2017 while working as a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. "We know from decades of work in hospitals and other care settings that most medical errors result from flawed systems, not reckless practitioners," IHI said. "We also know that systems can learn from errors and improve, but only when those systems encourage reporting, transparently acknowledge their mistakes and are held accountable for those errors." The organization said criminal prosecution of errors over-focuses on the individual and diverts attention from necessary system-level issues and improvements. "Were this practice to be repeated in future cases of a serious or fatal error, there will be more damage, less transparency, less accountability and more lives lost," IHI said. "Instead, this case should be a wake-up call to health system leaders who need to proactively identify system faults and risks and prevent harm to patients and those who care for them."
  23. News Article
    RaDonda Vaught, a former nurse criminally prosecuted for a fatal drug error in 2017, was convicted of gross neglect of an impaired adult and negligent homicide on Friday after a three-day trial in Nashville, Tenn., that gripped nurses across the country. Vaught faces three to six years in prison for neglect and one to two years for negligent homicide as a defendant with no prior convictions, according to sentencing guidelines provided by the Nashville district attorney's office. Vaught is scheduled to be sentenced 13, and her sentences are likely to run concurrently, said the district attorney's spokesperson, Steve Hayslip. Vaught was acquitted of reckless homicide. Criminally negligent homicide was a lesser charge included under reckless homicide. Vaught's trial has been closely watched by nurses and medical professionals across the U.S., many of whom worry it could set a precedent of criminalising medical mistakes. Medical errors are generally handled by professional licensing boards or civil courts, and criminal prosecutions like Vaught's case are exceedingly rare. Read full story Source: OPB, 26 March 2022 See also: As a nurse in the US faces prison for a deadly error, her colleagues worry: Could I be next?
  24. News Article
    Burnout is not a strong enough term to describe the severe mental distress nurses and other NHS staff are experiencing, says a doctor who has led efforts to improve care for health professionals. Medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health service Dame Clare Gerada told MPs radical action was needed to improve the mental well-being of NHS staff. She said nurses and other healthcare staff should be entitled to one hour of paid reflective time per month to be written into NHS employees’ contracts, alongside mentoring, careers advice and leadership training built in throughout people’s careers. Dr Gerada was among senior clinicians who gave evidence this week to the Health and Social Care Committee, which is looking at issues around recruitment and retention of staff. She told the committee the term ‘burnout’ simply did not cover the level of stress and mental anguish experienced by NHS workers. ‘Burnout is too gentle a term for the mental distress that is going on amongst our workforce,’ she said. High suicide rates among nurses and doctors, high levels of bullying and staff being sacked because they have long-COVID are all signs the health service is failing to look after its employees, she said. ‘The symptoms we have got are the symptoms of an organisation that is unable to care for its workforce in the way that it should be caring,’ she said. Read full story Source: Nursing Standard, 25 March 2022
  25. News Article
    The chief nursing officer for England has spoken about the ongoing shortages of nurses across the country and how the government’s previous pledge for 50,000 more nurses is now “not enough”. At one of her first in-person speeches since the start of the pandemic, Ruth May also revealed that she thought the removal of the student nurse bursary in England was “fundamentally the wrong decision”. Ms May was speaking at an event organised by the League of St Bartholomew’s Nurses in honour of pioneering nurse Pam Hibbs, who died following a Covid-19 infection last year. During her keynote address, Ms May said workforce remained a “big focus” for her team due to the “shortage” of nursing staff nationally. She said work to address the gaps was centred on the three areas of international recruitment, domestic training, and retention. She said numbers of nurses being recruited from overseas annually had risen from around 5,000 to 6,000 before the pandemic, to an expected 20,000 in this financial year. “I’m very, very glad that the NHS has had a diverse workforce from its very inception. We have welcomed colleagues from across all countries of the world, and we will continue to do that,” Ms May said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Nursing Times, 22 March 2022
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