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Showing results for tags 'Staff safety'.
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Content ArticleThis article in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety reports on the findings of a pilot programme to improve healthcare staff wellbeing. Between November 2018 and May 2020, researchers engaged five healthcare sites to take part in a pilot intervention. The pilot used evidence-based approaches to wellbeing including a comprehensive culture assessment, redesigning daily workflow and leadership and team development. The researchers found that healthcare worker wellbeing improved when: an integrated, skills-based approach was taken there was a focus on team culture, interactions and leadership workflows were redesigned to promote positive emotions. This study suggests that combining a number of these approaches at the same time can improve healthcare working environments and reduce levels of staff burnout.
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Content ArticleDisruptive and unprofessional behaviours occur frequently in healthcare and adversely affect patient care and health #care worker job satisfaction. These behaviours have rarely been evaluated at a work setting level, nor do we fully understand how disruptive behaviours (DBs) are associated with important metrics such as teamwork and safety climate, work-life balance, burnout and depression. Using a cross-sectional survey of all health ]care workers in a large US health system, this study from Redher et al. aimed to introduce a brief scale for evaluating DBs at a work setting level, evaluate the scale’s psychometric properties and provide benchmarking prevalence data from the health care system, and investigate associations between DBs and other validated measures of safety culture and well-being.
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Content ArticleHealthcare settings are inherently hazardous places, with very unpredictable and complex working environments. These hazards and risks not only result in a range of injuries and ill-health among workers but also jeopardise the safety of patients. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the importance of ensuring that the healthcare that is provided is safe—for patients and health workers alike. A sufficient, and capable, workforce, is the foundation of resilient systems. Policy makers need to focus now on how to build and support an appropriate workforce to respond to future shocks. This includes health workers beyond the hospital—including those in community, long-term, and primary care. The safety of both patients and health workers should be protected through appropriate mechanisms to ensure the safety of protective equipment and sufficient supplies, appropriate staffing levels, training and support at the workplace. These governance mechanisms are even more relevant when policy makers face trade-offs between health, safety and economic concerns. This is part of series of health working papers from the OECD on the economics of patient safety. The preceding paper, focusing on Long-term care, can be found here.
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Content ArticlePhysicians, nurses, and other frontline healthcare workers have been celebrated in many countries as heroes for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet not everyone appreciates their efforts and contributions. Since the pandemic, there have been examples of healthcare personnel facing attacks as they travel to and from healthcare facilities. Sadly, violence against healthcare personnel is not a new phenomenon, writes McKay et al. in this Lancet editorial.
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Content ArticleThe NHS Staff Survey for England reported that almost a quarter of all NHS staff experienced harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues in the last 12 months. Not only does this have a devastating impact on individuals and the teams within which they work, but it can have dire consequences for patient care. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is committed to eradicating bullying and undermining from the surgical and dental professions. It has a number of resources on its website.
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In this video, Helen Hughes, Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning, speaks to Phil Taylor, Chief Product Officer at RLDatix, about the importance of culture in achieving high reliability in healthcare. They discuss the impact of culture on incident reporting, examples of where safety culture is key to making improvements and consider what is needed to create the right safety culture. -
Content ArticleThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN)’s 'Nursing Workforce Standards' have been created to explicitly set out what must happen within workplaces to ensure the delivery of safe and effective patient care. The RCN's Nursing Workforce Standards are the first ever blueprint for tackling the nursing staff shortage levels across the UK. They set the standard for excellent patient care and nursing support in all settings, and all UK countries. Developed by the RCN's Professional Nursing Committee, the Nursing Workforce Standards suggest a roadmap for designing a workforce in both the NHS and the wider health and social care sector that can offer patients the quality of care they deserve. The 14 standards – the first of their kind – have been designed for use by those who fund, plan, commission, design, review and provide services which require a nursing workforce. They can also be used to help nursing staff understand what they should expect to be in place to enable them to do their jobs safely and effectively. The standards apply across the whole of the UK and to every setting where nursing care is delivered. They’re being launched as new polling reveals seven in 10 people believe there are too few nurses to provide safe care. Of the 1,752 members of the public who were surveyed, more than a quarter said they felt themselves or their families may not get the care required when needed.
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Content ArticleThis Joint Committee International handbook offers checklists for healthcare staff to keep themselves safe from chemical and physical hazards, infectious agents, workplace violence, ergonomic problems, work-related stress, and more. The book also includes managers’ checklists to ensure that the right administrative controls and processes are in place to safeguard health care staff. All checklists are based on authoritative, evidence-based sources that have proven valuable. All the checklists are straightforward and easy to use and understand and cover the key areas of risk for health care workers. Each section of checklists is introduced by compelling statistics that show how dangerous working in the healthcare environment can be, without proper precautions. The checklists provide the procedures or must-do activities to ensure that health care workers are as safe as can be.
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Content ArticleSession recordings from the ISQua 'Hospital Workers' Wellbeing Matters' conference.
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Content ArticleHospitals across the US are grappling with nurse shortages as the pandemic continues to change the healthcare system as we know it. Two intensive care unit nurses who left their jobs shared their experiences in Becker's Hospital Review.
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Content ArticleHealthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to a range of high and low molecular weight agents that are allergic sensitisers or irritants, including cleaners and disinfectants, natural rubber latex, and various medications. Studies have shown that exposed HCWs are at risk for work-related rhinitis and asthma (WRA). Work-related rhinitis may precede development of WRA and should be considered as an early marker of WRA. Avoidance of causative exposures through control strategies such as elimination, substitution, engineering controls, and process modification is the preferred primary prevention strategy for preventing development of work-related allergic diseases. There is limited evidence for the effectiveness of respirators in preventing occupational asthma. If sensitizer-induced WRA is diagnosed, it is important to avoid further exposure to the causative agent, preferably by more rigorous application of exposure control strategies to the workplace. This review from Mazurek and Weissman focuses on allergic occupational respiratory diseases in HCWs.
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Content ArticleEverybody responds differently to the stresses and strains of modern life. We all need and, to a degree, thrive on pressure: it gives us energy, helps with performance and inspires confidence. But excessive pressure can lead to stress. Stress may become a problem when someone feels they don’t have the resources to cope with the demands placed upon them. Harmful levels of stress can lead to a mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. This booklet from the Devon Partnership NHS Trust aims to give you some very practical information and guidance – and provides spaces for you to make notes so you can make it work for you.
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Content ArticleMINDFUL EMPLOYER provides employers with easier access to information and support in relation to supporting staff who experience stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions. Run by Workways, a service of Devon Partnership NHS Trust, MINDFUL EMPLOYER was developed with employers in Exeter and launched in October 2004. This completely voluntary initiative has since attracted interest and commitment from hundreds of small, medium and large employers from all sectors throughout the UK. The initiative provides a wide range of information and signposting to local, regional and national support services.
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NHS Employers: NHS Health and Wellbeing Framework
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Staff safety
Looking after the health and wellbeing of your staff is paramount. Investing in staff health and wellbeing not only delivers benefits for your organisation, but ultimately for the patients in your care. NHS England has worked with 12 NHS organisations to create a Health and Wellbeing Framework and accompanying diagnostic tool to help NHS organisations plan and implement their own approach for improving staff health and wellbeing. This framework has been developed by NHS Employers, NHS England and NHS Improvement with support from partners across the NHS, voluntary sector and government to bring best practice, research and insights together in one accessible place for the first time for NHS organisations. -
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NHS Employers: Emotional wellbeing toolkit resources
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Staff safety
NHS Employers provide an emotional wellbeing toolkit to help you track your emotional wellbeing and support others. If you're a manager, a team leader or looking for yourself, there are resources here for you. -
Content ArticleAmy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, talks about building a psychological safe workplace for staff in this TEDx talk.
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Content ArticleUnderstand how you can protect yourself as a lone worker as well as how your employer and manager should support you, with this guide from NHS Employers on improving safety for lone workers. It includes a list of key things to consider, which acts as a helpful checklist for those who work alone. The guide is aimed at an increasing number of staff in the health sector who work alone in community settings such as patients’ homes or on outreach work. Lone workers can be vulnerable and at increased risk of physical or verbal abuse and harassment from patients, clients, their relatives or members of the public, simply because they don’t have the immediate support of colleagues or security staff.
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Content ArticleThis guidance from NHS Employers explores: how shift work can impact on health, safety and wellbeing what can employers and employees do the importance of partnership working on shift working patterns.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented pressure on a nursing workforce that is already under considerable mental strain due to an overloaded system. Convergent evidence from the current and previous pandemics indicates that nurses experience the highest levels of psychological distress compared with other health professionals. Nurse leaders face particular challenges in mitigating risk and supporting nursing staff to negotiate moral distress and fatigue during large-scale, sustained crises. This paper from Sriharan et al. aims to (1) synthesise existing literature on COVID-19-related burnout and moral distress among nurses and (2) identify recommendations for nurse leaders to support the psychological needs of nursing staff.
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Content ArticleHelen McKenna sits down with Suzie Bailey, Director of Leadership and Organisational Development at The King’s Fund, and Professor Michael West to explore the results of the 2020 NHS Staff Survey and discuss how the NHS can create an inclusive, compassionate, and supportive working environment for staff.
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Content Article
How are you feeling today NHS? toolkit (14 January 2019)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Staff safety
It’s easier to recognise someone’s physical wellbeing than their emotional wellbeing. We also find it much easier to engage in conversations about physical health, but often find talking about emotional wellbeing to be more of a challenge. The implications of decreased emotional wellbeing are detrimental as it can contribute to mental health and stress concerns, it is important to ensure good staff wellbeing by encouraging conversation in the workplace. -
Content ArticleHealthcare workers are among the heroes of the pandemic. One year in, many of us are experiencing stress, fatigue, and grief. But this can pale in comparison to the toll faced by those caring for the sick and dying on a daily basis. On the latest episode of The Dose, we listen to the stories of one group of frontline health workers: nurses. Often dealing with inadequate PPE and staff shortages, nurses are putting their own lives at risk — and many are experiencing burnout and exhaustion. In this podcast, guest, Mary Wakefield, takes us on a journey from rural hospitals to clinics in underserved areas, all through the eyes of nurses.
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Tackling the blame culture? NHS Staff Survey Results 2020
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Culture
Patient Safety Learning reflects on the results of the NHS Staff Survey 2020, in relation to its ‘Safety Culture’ theme. The survey indicates that a significant number of staff continue have concerns about whether their organisation takes action to address patient safety issues, and that nearly a third of respondents said that they do not feel they would be treated fairly when raising a concern. This blog considers the patient safety implications of the persistence of blame culture in the NHS and considers the action that can be taken to address this. -
Content ArticleWhile the benefits of psychological safety are well established, a new survey suggests how leaders, by developing specific skills, can create a safer and higher-performance work environment.
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Content ArticleThis poster was presented by Hugh Wilkins at the UK Imaging and Oncology Congress in June 2019 and highlights the serious problem of retaliation against NHS staff who raise concerns in the public interest.
