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Showing results for tags 'Staff safety'.
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Content Article
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Covid-19 has posed a huge challenge to the delivery of safe care, both when infection rates were at their highest levels and in terms of its long-term impact on health and social care systems.[1] The pandemic has magnified existing patient safety issues, created new ones, and exposed safety gaps which require systemic responses. This month the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new report, Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for patient safety: A rapid review.[2] The review aims to create a greater understanding of the impact of the pandemic on patient safety, particularly in relation to diagnostic services, treatment and care management. In this blog, Patient Safety Learning, one of the international organisations who contributed to this review, provides an overview and reflections on some the key themes and issues raised in this review. -
Content ArticleDuring COVID-19, clinical teams faced disruption, having to respond to challenging circumstances and high uncertainty, whilst providing quality care to patients. We know that staff psychological wellbeing affects team effectiveness and patient experience and resilience is fostered by connections between (not just within) individuals. New collaborations between clinical, service improvement and psychology teams recognised the value of introducing the psychologically-informed ‘Start Well>End Well’ team procedure into routine team processes. This evidence-based approach consists of 1) an enhanced safety briefing, 2) peer-to-peer debrief guidance and signposting for trauma-focused support, and 3) team check-out. Initially launched as a general procedure across all wards with variable uptake, a more tailored co-design and coaching approach was then piloted on 2 neurology wards over 3 PDSA cycles. Formative evaluation (focus groups and written feedback) demonstrated staff felt “cared for” whilst achieving “positive impact” through improved ways of working within new teams.
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Content ArticleGovernments in England, Scotland and Wales recently withdrew covid sick leave for NHS staff. These changes to sick pay provision for staff on Covid-related sick pay is hard to understand at a time when Covid-19 infections are going up exponentially and many NHS organisations are reporting increasing numbers of staff off sick. Evidence is emerging that your chances of on-going issues (Long Covid) following a covid infection increase with each re-infection. Given this you might expect that NHS organisations were ensuring their infection control guidelines guaranteed staff were fully protected against Covid-19. However, in many Trusts this does not appear to be the case. Throughout the pandemic many NHS organisations seem to have focused on following Government guidelines about PPE requirements and ignored their obligations under Health and Safety Legislation. This has resulted in on-going shortcomings in protecting staff at work. This is discussed by Professor Raymond Agius and colleagues in a BMJ blog.
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Joy in work: presentation from Julia Wood (22 July 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Culture
Presentation from Julia Wood given to the Patient Safety Manager Network (PSMN) on the importance of finding joy and happiness in work and how you can support your staff. -
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The NHS whistleblowing crisis (8 February 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Whistle blowing
Tommy Greene and David Hencke report on a number of worrying NHS dismissal cases in this Byline Times article. -
Content ArticleThis opinion piece in The BMJ looks at the impact of the government's decision to make the wearing of masks in healthcare settings the decision of local providers, dependent on local risk assessment and prevalence. It highlights reports of patients wearing high-filtration FFP2 or FFP3 respirator—many of who are immunocompromised—being asked to remove and replace them with less effective single-use masks in order to gain entry to NHS facilities for treatment. The authors highlight that Covid-19 is an airborne pathogen and that the likelihood of contracting the virus increases with length of time spent in contaminated air. They argue that downgrading mask use in healthcare settings puts everyone at risk, but that it is a particular issue for patients who are clinically extremely vulnerable due to underlying health conditions or because they are undergoing treatment for cancer. They call on the government to upgrade masks to FFP2 or FFP3 respirators in order to protect staff and patients and reverse the worrying trend of clinically extremely vulnerable patients avoiding attending healthcare services.
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Content ArticlePerioperative practitioners in the UK are universally concerned about the risk surgical smoke plume poses to their health. Yet less than a fifth are aware of any policy being in place to manage this risk within their organisation. The majority of hospitals have plume evacuation equipment in place, but it is only used in the minority of surgical procedures. Almost three-quarters of theatre staff have experienced symptoms associated with exposure to surgical smoke plume. But these symptoms are rarely reported and, when they are, no action is generally taken. These are the findings of a new report published by the Surgical Plume Alliance (SPA), a joint advocacy initiative between the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP) and the International Council on Surgical Plume (ICSP). They aimed to gain a greater understanding of the awareness levels, training, management and policy surrounding surgical smoke plume in the UK.
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Content ArticleThe National Guardian’s Office has published its latest annual speaking up data, which summarises the themes and learning from the speaking up data shared by Freedom to Speak Up guardians.
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Content Article'The Staff Support Guide: a good practice resource following serious patient harm' was launched at Parliamentary reception on 29 June 2022. View the presentation about it from Patient Safety Learning and the Safer Healthcare Biosafety Network at the recent Network meeting.
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Content ArticleDavid Oliver is a consultant in geriatrics and acute general medicine who has worked in the NHS for 33 years. In this blog, he talks about his personal experience of running covid 'hot' wards during the different waves of the pandemic, describing the toll working in these conditions has taken on the health of him and many of his colleagues. He highlights the impact of looking after dying patients without adequate PPE, informing family members of patients' death over the phone, being responsible for many more patients than usual and witnessing colleagues die from Covid-19. The result has been burnout, mental health issues and low morale for a workforce that was already stretched before the pandemic hit the UK. David finally caught Covid-19 himself in March 2022 and he talks about how the virus—plus the cumulative effect of working under such strain for over two years—has meant he is not able to work and has been signed-off sick since mid-May.
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Content Article
PACE communication tool
Patient_Safety_Learning posted an article in Staff safety
Supporting staff to speak up is essential to patient safety. The PACE communication tool is designed to help anyone in a team challenge an action or behaviour they feel is inappropriate. You can read more about PACE (probe, alert, challenge, emergency) and other communication tools on the Victorian Trauma System website via the link below. -
Content ArticleIn this article, Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of the BMJ outlines the need for reform to the General Medical Council (GMC), which is responsible for regulating doctors in the United Kingdom. He talks about how the GMC received a significant backlash from doctors after its handling of the case of Manjula Arora, a GP who was disciplined for a word she used when asking her employer for a laptop. However, he highlights that the GMC's issues started long before this case, with racial bias, discrimination and an adversarial culture present over the last 30 years. Kamran also outlines measures that should be taken to ensure organisational change and accountability for the GMC.
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Content ArticleThis study in BMJ Open Quality examines aspects of workplace culture, employee motivation and leadership behaviours that support continuous learning and improvement, in an effort to measure the transition to high reliability. It reports on the development of two scales (trust in team members and trust in leadership) in a US children’s hospital which was seeking to assess progressive movement towards a ‘culture of safety'. The scales were designed to measure two cultural conditions fostered by the five high reliability principles and a composite measure on local learning activities.
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Content ArticleThe Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) is an independent scientific advisory body that looks at industrial injuries benefit and how it is administered. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the IIAC has been reviewing and assessing the increasing scientific evidence on the occupational risks of Covid-19. This report builds on an IIAC interim Position Paper published in February 2021 and considers more recent data on the occupational impacts of Covid-19, particularly around the longer term health problems and disability caused by the virus. IIAC found the most convincing and consistent evidence was for health and social care workers in certain occupational settings, who present with five serious pathological complications following Covid-19 that have been shown to cause persistent impairment and loss of function in some workers.
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Psychological safety Padlet board
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Culture
Psychological safety refers to creating and maintaining an environment in which members of a team feel able to speak up without fear of negative consequences. It allows healthcare professionals to take the interpersonal risks needed to engage in effective teamwork and to maintain patient safety. This Padlet board set up by Becky Thomas is a place to post resources and articles related to promoting psychological safety. -
Content ArticleMoral injury is a specific kind of trauma that can happen when when people face situations that deeply violate their conscience or threaten their core values. This blog for Scientific American looks at the experience of ER doctor Torree McGowan when the Delta wave of Covid-19 hit the central Oregon region where she works. It examines the impact that moral injury has had on her mental health and her relationship with patients. The author looks at how Covid-19 hugely increased the incidence of moral injury as people in frontline roles faced ethically wrenching dilemmas every day. The growing realisation that moral injury is a separate diagnosis to other conditions such as PTSD and depression is resulting in a wider range of treatments and trauma therapies. Many of these treatments encourage people to face moral conflicts head-on rather than blotting them out or explaining them away, and they emphasize the importance of community support in long-term recovery.
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Covid Airborne Protection Alliance Latest News
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The Covid Airborne Protection Alliance – formerly the AGP Alliance – (Chaired by BAPEN's Dr Barry Jones) is calling on Governments and health services in all four nations of the UK to review and update its guidance regarding personal protective equipment (PPE) for all health and social care staff as a matter of urgency. Stay up to date with their latest news. -
Content ArticleThis BMJ Practice Pointer discusses how we can support our colleagues with their mental health.
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GMC: Racism in the workplace hub
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in General Medical Council (GMC)
Everyone has the right to come to work without fear of racism. This resource from the General Medical Council (GMC) provides advice on how our guidance principles on non-discrimination apply when tackling racism. Where racist behaviour occurs among colleagues and patients, we recognise the fear that many doctors have of reporting these incidents. It signposts a range of support channels and highlights the duties we expect of doctors in senior positions in tackling and rooting out discrimination where it arises. It includes case studies from doctors and others on their experiences, advice and best practice. -
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This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Sharon talks to us about why manual handling needs to be more than tick-box training, and describes its significance for patient safety. -
Content ArticleThis opinion piece in the BMJ by Partha Kar, Director of Equality for Medical Workforce in the NHS, explores racial inequalities in the NHS workforce. Partha is currently leading work on the Medical Workforce Race Equality Standard (MWRES), which aims to challenge trusts and systems openly and transparently about race-based inequalities faced by NHS doctors.
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Content ArticleRacism is unacceptable and it has no place in health and care. But we know that it exists and that the impact on staff can be devastating. All registered professionals have responsibility under the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Code to challenge discriminatory behaviour, creating an environment where people are treated as individuals and with dignity and respect. This resource is firmly rooted in our professional Code and it is designed to support nurses, midwives and nursing associates, providing advice on the action you can take if you witness or experience racism. It also supports those in leadership roles to be inclusive leaders. This document provides practical examples of how, as nursing and midwifery professionals, you can recognise, and challenge racial discrimination, harassment, and abuse. It also highlights other useful resources and training materials that will support you to care with confidence. This document is a resource for individuals at all levels. This resource does not replace existing NHS England policies and procedures for speaking up and managing racism. It is a resource to support best practice in line with organisational policies and procedures.
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The Surviving in Scrubs campaign, created by Dr Becky Cox and Dr Chelcie Jewitt, gives a voice to women in healthcare to raise awareness and end sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault in healthcare. In this blog for the hub, co-founder Dr Chelcie Jewitt tells us more about the campaign. -
Content ArticleWhistleblowing is crucial to a free and open society. The APPG Whistleblowing is committed to bringing forward root and branch reform that protects every person from the mistreatment whistleblowers are currently subjected to. The whistleblowing manifesto aims to bring forward these reforms. The Bill will establish the Office of the Whistleblower to ensure that every citizen is protected, that legitimate concerns are investigated, and that those people and institutions are prosecuted when they breach the law.
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Content ArticleA toxic organisational culture has been shown to contribute more to staff leaving and reporting ill health, than pay and other factors. In this blog, Brandi Neal, Director of Content Creation & Marketing at the consultancy Radical Candor, looks at three traits of a toxic company culture: obnoxious aggression, ruinous empathy and manipulative insincerity. She highlights the value of the radical candor approach, which involves caring personally for staff while challenging them directly, and building genuine relationships with your team,
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