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Content ArticleThe rate at which nursing and ambulance staff are leaving the NHS is increasing. The number of nurse vacancies has risen to over 40,000 – a record high. The ambulance service has recorded an 80% per cent increase in staff leaving the profession since 2010. These rates are unequally distributed across professions, specialties and geographical regions, introducing inevitable inequalities in patient care. This Efficiency Research project aims to use this variation to detect underlying contributory factors for better or worse nurse and ambulance staff retention, and determine its effect on patient outcomes. A research team from Staffordshire University will use their experience of applying ‘big data’ analytics and unifying large datasets from three previous studies on the effect of nurse staffing on patient safety. Projects began in 2019 and will run until December 2023.
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As college students return, a crisis in campus care awaits
lzipperer posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Health services in college and university campuses are under pressure to respond to COVID-19 with patient safety in mind. This article from Abelson et al. in The Seattle Times discusses weakness in university health services that undermine their ability to do so. It shares interviews with students that discuss misdiagnosis and diagnostic delays due to the impact of the pandemic. -
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Top 10 tips for communicating a diagnosis of mesothelioma
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Cancers
RADIO Meso (Receiving a diagnosis of mesothelioma) is a research project, funded by Mesothelioma UK and being carried out by researchers at the University of Sheffield. The project aims to identify ways to improve the patient and family carer experience of receiving a diagnosis of mesothelioma. The researchers carried out interviews with people with mesothelioma and their family members. Additional consultation was conducted with health professionals involved in communicating a mesothelioma diagnosis. People attending a group event at the Mesothelioma UK Patient and Carer Day also contributed their experiences and views regarding diagnosis communication. They were asked to recall their own experience and to tell the team ‘what went well?’ and ‘what could have been better?’. Following analysis the researchers identified key themes and developed ‘ten Top Tips’ for communicating a mesothelioma diagnosis. -
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Mesothelioma UK: My Mesothelioma Care Passport
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Cancers
The 'My Mesothelioma Care Passport' is a pack designed to help patients keep up-to-date with the planned care that they have discussed and agreed with healthcare professionals. -
Content ArticleA joint National Patient Safety Alert has been issued by NHS Improvement and NHS England national patient safety team, Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Physicians and Society for Endocrinology, regarding the introduction of a new Steroid Emergency Card to support the early recognition and treatment of adrenal crisis in adults.
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Content ArticlePippa Kent is one of those people who were told that from 1 August they no longer needed to shield to protect themselves from the coronavirus. While you might assume that, having been trapped inside her house for the past 18 weeks, she would embrace this newfound freedom with enthusiasm, the reality remains far from it. For those whose pre-existing medical conditions greatly increase the risk from COVID-19, there, naturally, is hesitation to embrace this sweeping change. Read Pippa's blog, published in the Guardian, on her first trips out and the fears she felt.
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Content ArticleCompulsory face coverings pose particular challenges when patients are deaf or have dementia. This blog by Lesley Carter give practical advice on how to communicate clearly with patients when wearing a face mask.
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Nadine’s story: Informed consent (the Montgomery case)
Claire Cox posted an article in Consent and privacy
In this short film, Nadine Montgomery presents her story that led to the landmark ruling on consent (Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, 2015) -
Content ArticleThis animation has been made to help patients stay safe while they are in hospital. It has been developed by Haelo, an innovation and improvement centre in Salford, in partnership with Guy’s and St Thomas’, and is based on the airline-style safety card developed by Guy’s and St Thomas’. Designed as part of their award-winning Welcome Pack, the safety card supports our commitment to patient safety and enables patients to play an active role in their care.
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Content ArticleThis patient information leaflet produced by Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust gives 8 simple steps to keep yourself safe during your stay in hospital. These include; Preventing falls Preventing blood clots Preventing infection Your medicines Pressure ulcers Identification Your concerns Leaving hospital.
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Content ArticleNorthampton General Hospital NHS Trust has produced this leaflet to help keep patients safe in hospital.
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Medication safety: "Know Check Ask"
Claire Cox posted an article in Resources for patients
Do you know your medicines? Do you keep a list? Can you describe and discuss your medicines with healthcare professionals and family when you want to? Keeping track of your medicines and communicating about them can be tricky as there can be so many details to remember. This is especially important if you have a healthcare appointment or are going to hospital. This "Know Check Ask" campaign website is here to help. Please click on the content below to learn more about taking medicines safely. -
Content ArticleThis survey looks at the experiences of adults that have been an inpatient at an NHS hospital. The survey has been running since 2002 and is published annually.
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Content ArticleThis bedside guide, from the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, is intended for the use of all healthcare staff who are looking after adult patients with tracheostomies. The tasks described should not be attempted by those who have not received training or been deemed as competent in tracheostomy care and management. This guide includes posters, checklists and practical resources to aid the safe care of patients with tracheostomies.
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Content ArticleLeeds Hospital NHS Trust has developed a range of patient leaflets. These leaflets inform patients and relatives about the changes to their care and different processes during the pandemic.
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Content Article
Community Engagement Studio Toolkit
Claire Cox posted an article in How to engage for patient safety
This 53-page document provides guidance for engaging stakeholders in reviewing and providing feedback to the investigator on specific areas of concern before a research project is implemented. The objective is to strengthen research proposals. The process involves a community engagement studio, which operates like a focus group but with key differences. This model and toolkit were developed by the Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engaged Research Core, a program of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. -
Content ArticleResearch by the British Medical Association (BMA) concludes that over a million planned operations and treatments as well as over twenty thousand cancer treatments have been cancelled or delayed between April and the end of June this year because of the pandemic. The Association’s research also estimates that more than two and a half million first time outpatient appointments were cancelled during the same time period. This paper coincides with the BMA’s latest survey of 5,905 doctors in England and Wales, asking about the impact of the pandemic on their patients and their working lives. As part of the survey, they were asked if, within the last week, they had treated patients with conditions at a later stage (e.g. cancer, heart disease) than they would normally expect. A little over 40% said that they had. Behind this data are the scores of patients whose routine surgery or procedure has been put aside in the rush to reconfigure the NHS to cope with COVID-19. Even worse, doctors know there are those whose illnesses are far more serious than they were, some now beyond cure.
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Content ArticleProviding patients with access to electronic health records (EHRs) may improve quality of care by providing patients with their personal health information, and involving them as key stakeholders in the self-management of their health and disease. With the widespread use of these digital solutions, there is a growing need to evaluate their impact, in order to better understand their risks and benefits, and to inform health policies that are both patient-centred and evidence-based. The main objective of this systematic review from Neves et al. was to assess the impact of these interventions on the six dimensions of quality of care. The findings suggest that providing patients with access to EHRs can improve patient safety and effectiveness
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Content ArticleWhen patients give feedback to healthcare providers, the topic of "communication" often features prominently. That is because when people are feeling vulnerable, the way they are spoken to, and the words that are used, matter a great deal. There can be few experiences that are more distressing than the death of a baby. So we need to think very carefully about how bereaved parents are spoken to. This paper looks at clinical terms such as "miscarriage", "stillbirth" and "neo-natal death" and finds that "These categorisations based on gestational age and signs of life may not align with the realities of parental experience". This study, published by the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, explored the healthcare experiences of parents whose babies had died just before 24 weeks of gestation. Those interviewed "felt strongly that describing their loss as a "miscarriage" was inappropriate and did not adequately describe their lived experience".
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Content Article"Over half of the disease burden in England is deemed preventable", says this report, "with one in five deaths attributed to causes that could have been avoided". It notes however, that progress has stalled on reducing the number of people with preventable illness and that compared to other high-income countries, we are underperforming. The authors call for a paradigm shift in prevention policy, from interventions that "blame and punish" to those that "empathise and assist". Regressive taxes and bans have not, they say, delivered the transformation required. Key to any new prevention strategy is the online information environment. Over 60% of British adults use the internet to check symptoms or self-diagnose, with the NHS website considered to be the most trustworthy. There is also, however, a "pernicious prevalence of false information". Polling shows that less than half of the population believe obesity is linked to cancer (misinformation), while over a third either agree that vaccinations can cause autism, or say they don't know (disinformation).
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Content ArticleStress urinary incontinence is when you leak urine accidentally, especially during exercise or when you cough, laugh or sneeze. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a diagram that shows what treatments NICE recommends as options for managing stress urinary incontinence. If you have tried to manage your condition without surgery, but this hasn’t worked, you might like to think about surgery. This decision aid can help you and your surgeon decide together which type of surgery is best for you. You might also decide that you don’t want to have any surgery. It is important to make the choice that you feel is right for you. This will depend on your individual circumstances and how you feel about each type of surgery. Every woman is different, so this decision aid is only a guide. Information about how this decision aid was produced and the evidence on which it is based is available on the NICE website.
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Content ArticleStress urinary incontinence (SUI) is the loss of urine when coughing, laughing, sneezing or exercising. It is a common and distressing condition, with negative impact on quality of life. If conservative treatment, e.g. pelvic floor muscle training, is not successful, the most successful surgical procedures are mid-urethral mesh tape, colposuspension, autologous fascial sling and urethral bulking agent injections.
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Content ArticleIn this issue of Patient Experience you can find topics discussed by the people who are living inside the health and care systems and are sharing their stories.
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Content ArticleThis is a true story of ordinary people showing extraordinary determination and courage in the face of adversity. It is an unconventional, honest and deeply personal attempt to bring what has been hidden into the light for all to see. Alison was a vulnerable mentally ill patient taken advantage of by an older male nurse. She became pregnant and a crisis abortion was arranged by staff at the mental health hospital. Alison took her life on what would have been her child's third birthday. Though the names are known, no one has ever been held accountable for the crimes committed against her. Alison and her family have been lied to and failed by the NHS, the Police and Crown Prosecution Service. While this book pays tribute to the many leaderless heroes on the frontline of health services, it is scathing about the lack of honesty and integrity in their leaders and managers. This is a story of the abuse of power, the hiding of wrongdoing, and a quest for truth, accountability and justice that is not yet over.
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Content Article
Premature discharge from hospital (June 2020)
Claire Cox posted an article in Keeping patients safe
This is a report of a qualitative survey that explored unsafe, premature discharge from hospital. The Patients Association has regularly heard from helpline callers that patients believed that they had been discharged too early from hospital,and that as a result they had either suffered harm or been at risk of harm.
