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Showing results for tags 'Staff support'.
Found 863 results
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Content ArticleA recent survey has found that one in four doctors in the NHS are so tired that their ability to treat patients has become impaired. In this Guardian article, doctors reveal how tiredness, fatigue and sleep deprivation are affecting their ability to provide the best care for patients in the NHS.
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Content ArticleAfter nearly two years of pandemic, 5,000 inpatients and 1,000 deaths, the staff of one of the largest hospitals in north-west England are frustrated and exhausted. While ministers talk of encouraging signs that the Omicron wave may be receding in parts of England, staff at the Royal Preston are struggling to keep their heads above water. The hospital has seen a near four-fold increase in Covid patients since Christmas Day, rising to 103 last week. It is one of the largest hospitals in a region with the highest infection levels in the UK and two neighbouring NHS Trusts have declared critical incidents. Despite a recent slowdown in admissions, the “horrendous” levels of staff absence means the pressure is ratcheting up.
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Content ArticleThe wellbeing of NHS staff is now recognised as a priority, as evidenced by the introduction of Wellbeing Guardians into the NHS. The NHS needs to appoint a National Wellbeing Guardian to provide a leadership role for the work of these guardians, and more generally to actively promote wellbeing in NHS staff, write Narinder Kapur, Christian Harkensee and Terry Skitmore in HSJ.
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Content ArticleWith a global nursing workforce shortage upon us, governments and health system decision makers are becoming alarmed at the potential risk to service delivery if solutions are not found. However, nurses know that what constitutes the fundamental threat to a healthy healthcare system is not the hard work of nursing, but rather the demoralizing conditions under which many nurses strive to practise their profession. This commentary examines the context for some of those conditions and encourages a collective commitment to articulating our vision for the profession in a manner that is sufficiently forceful to be effective.
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Content ArticleClinical and nonclinical staff at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital have improved patient care and raised staff morale at a very modest cost: 10 minutes a day and a special deck of cards. At the start of every shift, the team members get together for a brief “team-start.” Each team member rates his or her own mood as green (I’m good), orange (I’m okay but I have a few things I’m concerned about) or red (I’m under stress). The rest of the team doesn’t need to know that you’re under stress because you’re having a dispute with your landlord or you are worried about your ill toddler. How you feel, however, is important because it affects how you should be treated. Next, the team leader asks if there is anything in particular the team needs to know to work more effectively together that shift: For example, “Is there a delay in public transport so we can expect patients to be late for their appointments?,” or “Is there a patient with some kind of special need coming in?” Sharing the answers or results generated by the card questions and activities with the group ensures that the insights stick.
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Content ArticleListen for weak signals to avert potential disasters, urges Columbia Business School professor, Rita Gunther McGrath. We’ve all heard the stories. The multi-patent-holding chemist at Kodak who warned of the digital revolution. The experienced research and development person at Nokia who pointed out that the bean counters had taken over and the company couldn’t get new products out the door anymore. The scary-smart top engineers at General Electric who urged the company to bet on renewable energy rather than tying its fortunes to fossil fuels. It’s nearly always the case that someone, somewhere, saw a significant inflection point coming and tried to warn the ‘powers that be’ – to little avail. Ignoring these warnings imperils everyone. And yet, it happens over and over again. Let’s explore why, and what you as a leader might do about it.
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Content Article
You ok doc? Supporting doctors' mental health
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Staff safety
How often do we visit our doctor for guidance on our health, however, who asks after the doctor's health? When faced with life or death situations on a daily basis, that demands scrupulous attention to detail, across unsocial shift patterns; the option of ‘normal’ life seems unimaginable. In the last decade alone we have seen a rise in mental health issues for those working in healthcare. A recent study by the British Medical Association identified that almost 80% of all doctors are at high risk of burnout. An issue that used to arrive at the maturity of one's career, is now common in its nascency and is equating to growing rates of suicide. With a growing crisis around a serious issue, there is an urgent need to tackle the cultural taboos, training and opinions that are associated with mental health in our industry. 'You ok doc' is committed to not only supporting doctors' mental health through services like 'The Huddle', but also empowering doctors' wellbeing through bespoke mental and emotional health aids. -
Content ArticleIn this article in Becker's Hospital Review, Mackenzie Bean highlights five of the most pressing safety issues for healthcare systems and hospitals to address in 2022:Foundational safety workSupporting the healthcare workforceIntegrating equity into safety workDiagnostic harmHealthcare-associated infections
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Content ArticleClinician burnout in healthcare is a growing area of concern, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on. Research from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Regenstrief Institute looked at ways organisations can address burnout.
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Content Article
COVID Nursing and PTSD (December 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
In an article for the Patient Safety Journal, Cassandra Alexander, a nurse, shares what it is like on the front lines and the toll it has taken on her mental health—a deeply personal and painful story, yet a traumatic experience shared by many nurses around the United States. -
Content Article
Patient Safety Learning and the Safer Healthcare and Biosafety Network (SHBN) are undertaking a project, working with patient safety experts and frontline staff, to produce a manual to support staff after a serious safety incident. As part of this work, we are asking healthcare staff to complete a short survey relating to experiences of a serious safety incident. -
Content ArticlePandemic and backlog pressures may make candour more challenging but do not make it any less essential, the panel at a recent HSJ webinar argued.
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Content ArticleThe purpose of this investigation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) is to help improve patient safety in relation to recognition of the acutely ill infant and child, recognising the difficulty in distinguishing between simple viral illnesses and life-threatening bacterial infections in very young patients. This Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch investigation reviewed the case of Mohammad, a baby who had become unwell and was taken to an emergency department by ambulance following a call to NHS 111. He arrived at 8.04pm and was considered to have a mild viral illness, subsequently being transferred to a paediatric observational ward, and discharged at 11.45pm with a diagnosis of likely bronchiolitis. At approximately 3.40am his mother contacted the ward as his condition worsened, which resulted in a 999 call. The ambulance crew did not consider that Mohammad was seriously ill so did not conduct a ‘blue light’ emergency transfer to hospital. Mohammad was admitted to the emergency department at approximately 4.40am and suffered a respiratory and then cardiac arrest at 5:28am, with attempts to resuscitate unsuccessful and stopped at 6:10am. Mohammad died of septicaemia caused by meningococcus (serogroup B) bacteria.
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Content ArticleThe WHO Academy’s mobile learning app was developed specifically for health workers and is designed to enable them to expand their life-saving skills to battle COVID-19. It delivers mobile access to a wealth of COVID-19 knowledge resources developed by WHO, including up-to-the-minute guidance, tools, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for patients infected by COVID-19 and in protecting themselves as they do their critical work. With content in seven languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish – the app focuses on providing health workers with critical, evidence-based information and tools to respond to the pandemic.
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Content Article
Recently an enduring discussion evolved on Twitter on why safety culture is important for patient safety. My reaction, of course, was: it isn’t. Let me explain why. I think it is possible to address safety without addressing safety culture. Or, rather, to focus on actions that will improve both safety performance and safety culture (as a by-product) at the same time. In this blog I propose some of these actions – showing how to create an understanding of how work is (actually) done (rather than what it says on paper), seeing what makes it difficult and identifying what resources are missing. If we address these challenges, then surely we will be able to improve safety and safety culture will follow naturally. -
Content ArticleA doctor describes why they left clinical practice for the sake of their mental health and how healthcare organisations can create more supportive environments.
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Content ArticleThis episode of the Hope4Med podcast features pharmacist Soojin Jun, co-founder of Patients for Patient Safety US and patient advocate with a passion for patient safety, quality improvement, and health equity. Dr. Jun shares the life-changing experience that affected her family and led to her career in healthcare. She discusses the importance of effective communication in healthcare, not only between patients and providers but also between providers. Miscommunications can cost a life. We also explore how burnout and moral injury can further harm when healthcare professionals are not functioning at their optimal level.
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Content ArticleAn author turned junior doctor’s account of the chaos at work and anguish at home as Covid-19 arrived in the UK.
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Content ArticleThis review explores the experiences of international nurses recently recruited to the UK nursing workforce (1995–2007) and the implications for retention. Five main themes emerged from the review: motivation for migration, adapting to British nursing, experiences of first world healthcare, feeling devalued and deskilled, and vectors of racial discrimination. Although some positive experiences are described, significant numbers of nurses describe not feeling personally or professionally valued by the UK nursing establishment, common emotions expressed are disappointment and unmet expectations. This will have implications for job satisfaction and intention to leave or stay. If overseas nurses choose to leave the UK in large numbers, the health services could face a severe staffing shortage. It is important that we listen carefully to their experiences to help identify priorities for policy and practice aimed at improving job satisfaction for migrant nurses and articulating the value that they bring to UK nursing.
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Content Article
In this blog, Patient Safety Learning’s Chief Executive, Helen Hughes, reflects on participating in a recent Health Service Journal (HSJ) Patient Safety Congress webinar, held in association with BD, which considered some of the key emerging patient safety issues for 2022.- Posted
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Content ArticleThis report from CIPD examines the latest evidence and the experiences of employees experiencing long COVID, and offers recommendations for organisations on how to effectively support those with long COVID to return to, and stay in, work.
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Content Article
BBC Sounds podcast - The Backlog (9 February 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Exit strategies
This is the first episode in a series of podcasts by Natasha Loder, Health Policy Editor at The Economist, about the care backlog currently facing the health service. After more than two years battling Covid-19, the NHS is struggling through its worst winter crisis in living memory and is facing a daunting task to clear the huge backlog exacerbated by the pandemic. Nearly six million people are on the NHS waiting list for routine treatment in England alone. As patients, often with worsening conditions, pour back into the NHS after putting off treatment, health secretary Sajid Javid warns waiting lists could top thirteen million. In this first episode, Natasha speaks to frontline workers, managers, policy experts, and patients to assess the pressure created by the unprecedented demand on the different areas of the NHS from emergency services to GP surgeries. -
Content ArticleThis qualitative study in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control aimed to identify institutional actions, strategies and policies related to healthcare workers’ safety perception during the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic at a tertiary care centre in Switzerland. The authors interviewed healthcare workers from different clinics, professions, and positions. The study identified transparent communication as the most important factor affecting healthcare worker's safety perceptions during the first wave. This knowledge can be used to help hospitals better prepare for future infectious disease threats and outbreaks.
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Content ArticleThis study in Occupational Medicine examined the impact of the introduction of face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic on D/deaf healthcare professionals (HCPs). The study found that D/deaf HCPs felt left behind, isolated and frustrated by a lack of transparent masks and reasonable adjustments to meet their communication needs. This resulted in some leaving their roles, and loss of experienced, qualified HCPs has a significant economic and workforce impact, particularly during a pandemic. The authors call for urgent action to ensure D/deaf HCPs are provided with the workplace support required under the Equality Act (2010).
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Content ArticleThis blog for The Kings Fund looks at how chronic excessive workload is damaging staff health, patient care and healthcare workers' long-term ability to provide high-quality and compassionate care for people in their communities. The authors argue that the issue of excessive workload is the major barrier preventing improvements in patient satisfaction, staff retention, financial performance and care outcomes.
