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Showing results for tags 'Staff factors'.
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Content ArticleWe all have to deal with pressure. Sometimes it's minor like "do I go left or right at the roundabout?". Sometimes it's the difference between life and death. But how can we manage and work with that pressure, rather than against it? Dr Stephen Hearns is a critical care doctor and search and rescue specialist in Scotland, who has spent his career understanding what pressure is and how he can try to handle it in stressful times. His new book 'Peak performance under pressure' goes into detail about the tools and techniques we can all use to manage stress when the going gets tough. In this podcast, produced by eeast (East of England Ambulance Service) General Broadcast, Stephen talks about why pressure is sometimes good for us, how to recognise stress in other and what to do when you're maxed out.
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Content ArticleThis project, led by a team of researchers, aims to give a voice back to the critical care nurse so that there is a much greater understanding of the mental challenges of the profession and so that appropriate supportive measures can be developed that improve working conditions. In order to carry out the research, the team need volunteers to participate and share their own views and experiences of mental health and well-being in the profession. We are looking for any active critical care nurse who is open to discussing mental health and well-being to shed light on what is a too often ignored and overlooked subject. Find out more about the project and how to sign up via the link below.
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News Article
Inspectors criticise poor nursing and leadership in latest damning report
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A damning new report has exposed numerous lapses in nursing care on wards at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust amid a culture which left patients at risk of “unsafe and uncaring” treatment, the care watchdog has said. Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) cited multiple examples of nurses at the scandal-hit trust lacking the knowledge to look after patients safely and failing to record key information needed to keep patients safe during an inspection of medical wards in June this year. The inspectors found poorly completed nursing records, equipment unavailable and nurses not following procedures. This meant some patients developed pressure sores, fell from their beds and were injured or suffered pain at the end of their life. Other patients were at risk of suffering similar harm. Inspectors ruled the trust, which was rated inadequate and put into special measures in 2018, was unsafe and criticised the hospital leadership for what it said was a “collective failure” that was perpetuating the problems at the hospital. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 August 2020 -
News Article
Health committee launches inquiry into NHS staff burnout
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
MPs have launched an inquiry examining workforce burnout across the NHS and social care, and the system’s ability to manage staff stress amid increased pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The House of Commons health and social care committee said it aims to produce a report showing the levels of staff needed in health and social care to tackle exhaustion and meet future challenges. The committee is calling for evidence on how workforce shortages impacted staff well-being and patient care during the pandemic and the areas that need to see recruitment most urgently. Read full story Source: Pulse, 3 August 2020 -
Content ArticleThe purpose of this study, published in the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, was to ascertain the views, beliefs and attitudes of hospital staff to incorrect penicillin allergy records in order to determine healthcare worker motivation for the implementation of a penicillin de-labelling antibiotic stewardship intervention at the study hospital. Findings showed that virtually all staff in this study, had encountered patients who believed themselves to be penicillin allergic, but felt the patient’s belief to be erroneous. Therefore, a penicillin allergy de-labelling intervention might be of benefit to ensure that patients who were not allergic were able to have the correct antibiotic.
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Content ArticleRacial discrimination still exists in NHS organisations but can be eradicated if the attitudes and processes used to improve patient safety are adopted, says Roger Kline.
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Content ArticleIn this commentary piece, published in BMJ Leader, Suzanne Shale draws attention to a broader notion of moral injury found in moral philosophy. In this version, a moral wound can be experienced by anyone. It arises from sources that include injustice, cruelty, status degradation and profound breaches of moral expectations. The moral-philosophical version of moral injury associates it with moral and psychological anguish, and feelings such as bewilderment, humiliation and resentment. According to this formulation of moral injury, it could affect patients, service users, families and loved ones as well as care staff. Suzanne highlights that experiences of moral injury among the wider public, as well as staff, will call for attention from care leaders long after the pandemic surge.
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News Article
Have your say in shaping the future of NHS complaint handling
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Parliament and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) been working with the NHS and other public service organisations, members of the public and advocacy groups to develop a shared vision for NHS complaint handling. We've called this the Complaint Standards Framework. Now they want to hear from you. Have your say in shaping the future of NHS complaint handling by taking part in their survey. Read the Complaint Standards Framework: Summary of core expectations for NHS organisations and staff -
News ArticleThere has been a sharp rise in the number of nurses considering quitting the profession compared to this time last year, suggest results from a new survey. The research also found that “existing tensions” among the workforce appeared to have been “exacerbated” by the COVID-19 crisis. The survey findings feature in a new report published by Royal College of Nursing and cover the views of almost 42,000 of its members across the UK and Channel Islands. Of those who responded to the survey, 36% of nurses were thinking of leaving the profession, an increase from 27% reported in a similar piece of research carried out at the end of last year. When considering the reasons for quitting, 61% of staff indicated that the level of pay was the “main driver”, while others said they were dissatisfied with the way nursing staff had been treated during the pandemic (44%). Meanwhile, 43% of nurses cited low staffing levels and 42% a lack of management support as key reasons for wanting to leave nursing. Read full story Source: Nursing Times, 17 July 2020
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Content ArticleHealthcare staff have had to adapt their way of working as a result of the pandemic, which has made pre-COVID guidance obsolete. Different Trusts are doing different things. Associate Director of Patient Safety Learning and Critical Care Outreach Nurse, Claire Cox, outlines the challenges and asks, what is the solution?
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Content ArticleClinical decisions rarely occur in isolation. We must consider the social contexts in clinical environments and draw on theories of social emotion to help us better understand the influence of others’ emotion on our own thoughts, feelings and, ultimately, our ability to deliver safe care. In their Editorial in BMJ Quality & Safety, Jane Heyhoe and Rebecca Lawton explorie the role of social emotion in patient safety and looks at the recent research in this emerging area. They call on the patient safety community to embrace the idea that emotions and emotional contexts exert important impacts on healthcare delivery. Characterising these impacts will inform strategies for supporting staff and delivering safer and more effective care to patients.
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News ArticleRegulators have uncovered multiple examples of patients being put at risk when junior doctors are left with tasks they are not trained for, lacking support, and facing bullying and inappropriate behaviour. Inspection teams have had to intervene – in some cases contacting senior trust staff – to ensure urgent issues are addressed, after the inspections. Health Education England oversees training nationally, which includes making the checks at trusts which have been put under “enhanced monitoring” by the professional regulator, the General Medical Council, because of concerns from trainees. HSJ has obtained and examined 20 reports, all produced since the beginning of 2019. Themes running through the reports included: Lack of support from consultants. Trainees struggled to contact consultants out of hours. Bullying and inappropriate behaviour was reported at several trusts. Inspectors found a reluctance to report concerns and/or a lack of knowledge of how to do it. Teaching was often of poor quality or cancelled – and sometimes trainees struggled to attend sessions because of how their shifts and rotations were scheduled. Trainees in several trusts reported IT problems, such as being locked out of systems so being unable to access clinical notes and blood tests, and IT systems taking up to 30 minutes to start up, sometimes delaying patient care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 June 2020
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News Article
Patients received ‘derogatory’ treatment at women’s unit
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Inspectors have placed a women’s mental health service into special measures after patients were said to have been subjected to “inappropriate” and “derogatory” treatment by staff. St Andrew’s Healthcare, which runs the women’s inpatient facility in Northampton, has received a series of damning reports among its services over the past two years. The inspectors noted during visits between February and March that staff reportedly used language to describe patients on a medium secure ward such as “self-harmers”, “attention seeking”, and “kicking off”. Patients said staff used “inappropriate restraint techniques that caused pain” with reports they “bent the patient’s wrist and arm behind their back.” They also said staff spoke to them in a “derogatory manner, for example telling them to sort themselves out when engaging in self harm behaviour.” Inspectors rated the service “inadequate” overall, noting concerns elsewhere including “forensic failure incidents due to staff shortages”, that staff were not reporting all safeguarding concerns and that “managers did not ensure safe and clean environments in the long stay rehabilitation service and learning disability service.” Read full story Source: HSJ, 10 June 2020 -
Content Article
Diagnosis: COVID Blindness (April 2020)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Blogs
In this article, published by Diagnosis, Linden Brown reflects on his time working with COVID-19 patients. He recalls an incident where a case of sepsis was nearly missed due to what he calls 'COVID-blindness'. "In the panic of quarantine and isolation precautions, we put on cognitive blinders to our bread and butter: sepsis. Had this patient come into the hospital 2 weeks prior, he would likely have been placed on antibiotics immediately." -
News Article
ICUs advised how to improve staffing ratios as covid pressure eases
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Intensive care units (ICU) will be advised how to improve their staffing-to-patient ratios shortly as the number of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 falls across the country. In expectation that the pandemic would put intense pressures on ICUs, staff ratios were relaxed. NHS England told trusts to base their staffing models on one critical care nurse for every six ICU patients, supported by two non-specialist nurses, and one senior ICU clinician for every 30 patients, supported by two middle-grade doctors. Before the pandemic, guidance from the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine recommended a ratio of one non-specialist nurse per patient. For senior clinicians the ratio was 1:10 New guidance, expected as early as next week, will encourage trusts to reduce the number of patients per ICU specialist nurses and senior clinicians on a localised basis as part of “transitional arrangements” aimed at moving staffing models back towards normal standards of care, HSJ has been told. The new guidance, drawn up by NHS England, the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, will give trusts recommended staffing ratios based on the occupancy rates of their ICUs. It will tell trusts the existing ratios should be applied if their ICUs are running at four times their normal capacity. For ICUs running at double capacity, this ratio would be reduced to 1:2 for ICU nurses, and 1:15 for senior clinicians. Read full story Source: HSJ, 8 May 2020 -
Content ArticleHundreds of healthcare organisations around the world are Schwartz Center healthcare members and conduct Schwartz Rounds® to bring doctors, nurses and other caregivers together to discuss the social and emotional side of caring for patients and families. This video explains more.
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Content ArticleShabazz et al. explore incidents of bullying and undermining among obstetrics and gynaecology consultants in the UK, to add another dimension to previous research and assist in providing a more holistic understanding of the problem in medicine.
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Content ArticleIn healthcare, leadership is decisive in influencing the quality of care and the performance of hospitals. How staff are treated significantly influences care provision and organisational performance so understanding how leaders can help ensure staff are cared for, valued, supported and respected is important. Research suggests ‘inclusion’ is a critical part of the answer, as Roger Kline explains further in this BMJ Opinion article.
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Content ArticleThis podcast, published by Coda, covers a wide array of topics, from PPE to simulation. Martin Bromiley (Human Factors expert), talks about the ways human factors affect teams and safety and share communications tactics to help alleviate potential issues.
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News Article
Number of NHS doctors off sick 'may be nearly triple the official estimate'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government could be significantly underestimating the number of medics going off work due to the coronavirus, according to a survey by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Sunday that 5.7% of hospital doctors were off sick or absent because of Covid-19, but a doctors’ survey of more than 2,500 medics found the rate was almost three times that – 14.6%. In recent weeks in London, nearly a third of hospital doctors said they were off work for Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 reasons, according to the RCP’s poll of members, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday. Prof Andrew Goddard, the president of the RCP, said the number who had been off work in London “should be a sobering wake-up call” for the rest of the country, with the largest rises in confirmed cases now being outside the capital including in the West Midlands. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 April 2020 -
Content ArticleIn this blog, Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan discuss resilience, the importance of recovery and how we can build resilience.
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Content ArticleThis study by Hall et al. looked at whether there is an association between healthcare professionals’ wellbeing and burnout, with patient safety. The authors found that poor wellbeing and moderate to high levels of burnout are associated, in the majority of studies reviewed, with poor patient safety outcomes such as medical errors, however the lack of prospective studies reduces the ability to determine causality. Further prospective studies, research in primary care, conducted within the UK, and a clearer definition of healthcare staff wellbeing are needed.
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Content ArticleAlthough leaders might say they value inquisitive minds, in reality most stifle curiosity, fearing it will increase risk and inefficiency. Harvard Business School’s Francesca Gino elaborates on the benefits of and common barriers to curiosity in the workplace and offers five strategies for bolstering it.
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News Article
Trusts criticise ‘completely chaotic’ covid-19 supply response
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Several trust procurement leads have expressed frustration with the government’s response to covid-19, with HSJ being told of shortages of crucial personal protective equipment, unpredictable deliveries and a lack of clarity from the centre NHS Supply Chain, which procures common consumables and medical devices for trusts, has been “managing demand” for an increasing number of PPE and infection control products for since the end of February to ensure “continuity of supply”. Some products, like certain polymer aprons, are unavailable altogether because of the increased demand and disrupted supply caused by the covid-19 outbreak. One procurement lead told HSJ: “They aren’t supplying enough, they aren’t fulfilling orders. It’s completely chaotic.” Another said his trust had “just enough to manage for the time being.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 20 March 2020 -
Content ArticleThis publication presents UK-focused analysis of The Commonwealth Fund’s 2019 International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Doctors in 11 Countries. This includes responses to several UK-specific questions funded by the Health Foundation. The Health Foundation present their analysis of the data, including comparisons with the 2015 survey where possible, under three main themes: how GPs view their job what care GPs are providing and how it is changing how GPs work with other professionals and services.
