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Showing results for tags 'Staff support'.
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Content ArticleUsing new technologies in the NHS could bring multiple benefits. They could save healthcare professionals’ time, increase the number of people a skilled professional can support, and enable more sustainable workforce models. At the same time, they can promote safer and more personalised care. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have published their latest Collection brings together NIHR research demonstrating how digital technology can improve care while reducing the demands on staff.
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Content Article
NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (30 June 2023)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in NHS England
The first comprehensive workforce plan for the NHS, putting staffing on a sustainable footing and improving patient care. It focuses on retaining existing talent and making the best use of new technology alongside the biggest recruitment drive in health service history. -
Content ArticleThe state of medical education and practice in the UK 2023 is published at a time when the UK health systems face extensive challenges. This report from the General Medical Council (GMC) shares concerning data about the experiences of doctors and the challenges to providing adequate care to patients. In this context, careful and constructive exploration of the practical, evidence-based steps that can be taken to improve the situation is critical – to protect both patients and the doctors who care for them.
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Content Article
Adverse incidents arising from suboptimal healthcare are a major cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality. Arriving at an understanding of the conditions under which adverse incidents occur has the potential to improve the safety of healthcare provision. Staff working in the NHS have been contributing their experiences via a narrative data capture platform – SenseMaker – to help gain contextual insights on a wide range of topics under exploration by the NHS Horizons team. This blog by Rosanna Hunt (Senior Associate, NHS Horizons) in collaboration with Lizzy MacNamara (Junior Research Consultant, The Cynefin Co.) and Taj Nathan (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Cheshire & the Wirral Partnership Foundation Trust) describes how the SenseMaker® platform could be used to extract staff experiences on the topic of patient safety incidents both reported and unreported by staff, and the facilitated conversations that would be needed to transform the data into actionable insights and commitment to change. -
Content Article
Fighting Fatigue Together campaign
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Staff safety
Fighting Fatigue Together is a network of healthcare organisations working on European, national and local levels brought together by the European Patient Safety Foundation, an in dependent foundation of public interest. They share a common concern for the well-being and safety of healthcare workers. Fatigue is affecting the well-being and safety of healthcare professionals with greater intensity and on a larger scale than ever before. Fatigue is also a risk to patient safety. Patient Safety Learning is one of the organisations that supports this campaign. Visit the Fighting Fatigue Together website to join the campaign. -
Content ArticleAn article from Roger Kline on the failure of many NHS organisations to create a climate where it is safe for staff to speak up. Roger reflects on the recent report published by the National Guardian’s office which summarises the results from the NHS staff survey completed by over 600,000 staff and highlights the story of a senior manager who tried to speak up and the consequences that followed. Further reading: Still not safe to speak up: NHS Staff Survey Results 2022 (Patient Safety Learning blog)
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Content ArticleThe government has published its mandate to NHS England. This mandate is intended to apply from 15 June 2023 until a new mandate is published. NHS England has a duty to seek to achieve the objectives in the mandate. The Secretary of State keeps progress against the mandate under review, setting out his views in an annual assessment which is laid in Parliament and published. The government will agree with NHS England how it should report on overall progress against the mandate to support the Secretary of State in keeping this under review. This will include reporting at agreed intervals on other delivery expectations listed beneath the objectives.
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Content ArticlePsychosocial support programs are a way for hospitals to support the mental health of their staff. However, while support is needed, utilization of support by hospital staff remains low. This study from van de Baan et al. aims to identify reasons for non-use and elements that are important to consider when offering psychosocial support.
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Content ArticleBackground to the independent review by Lewisham and Greenwich into Dr Chris Day's whistleblowing case.
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Content ArticleThe tragic and preventable death of Ruth Perry, headteacher at a school downgraded by an Ofsted inspection, has sparked calls for a review of regulatory oversight. While safety and quality must be assured, it’s crucial to consider the impact of regulatory inspections on the well-being of passionate workforces facing complex and challenging environments. In this blog, healthcare entrepreneur Vanessa Webb makes the case that as a potential cause of harm to staff, regulatory inspections in public services including healthcare should be subject to Health and Safety Risk Assessments. There should be a systematic process to identify hazards, evaluate the likelihood and severity of harm, and determine appropriate controls to prevent or mitigate those risks.
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Content ArticleBurnout is a workplace syndrome characterised by three core attributes: 1) energy depletion or exhaustion, 2) a cynical or negative attitude toward one’s job, and 3) reduced professional efficacy. That second attribute, workplace cynicism, may be the least-understood aspect of burnout in part because of its complexity. In contrast to exhaustion and diminished efficacy, whose causes and effects are relatively straightforward, cynicism can be caused by a number of workplace factors, and it can be expressed in a broad range of emotional states and behaviours. Cynicism is dangerous to both individual and organisational health and can also spread rapidly throughout teams through a phenomenon known as “emotional contagion.” It’s possible to improve even deep-seated cynicism — and better yet, to prevent it from infecting your organization in the first place. The author of this Harvard Business Review article offers strategies to help reverse existing cynicism and to create an anti-cynical culture at work.
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Content ArticleWith increasing concerns around the working conditions and psychological wellbeing of staff in the NHS, questions have been raised about how best to support staff wellbeing. Research is clear that wellbeing interventions that target the organisation and staff’s working environment work better than those which focus solely on supporting the individual person. Although it might seem simple to say: “we need to improve working conditions”, the challenge is whether this is possible and, if so, what this actually looks like in practice.
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Content ArticleThe NHS in England has largely relied on a human resources trilogy of policies, procedures and training to improve organisational culture. Evidence from four interventions using this paradigm—disciplinary action, bullying, whistleblowing and recruitment and career progression—confirms research findings that this approach, in isolation, was never likely to be effective. Roger Kline proposes an alternative methodology, elements of which are beginning to be adopted, which is more likely to be effective and to positively contribute to organisational cultures supporting inclusion, psychological safety, staff well-being, organisational effectiveness and patient care.
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Content ArticleThis podcast series from Julie Taylor aims to raise awareness of Long Covid, provide a platform of support, education and the lived experience. Julie is a registered nurse in the UK and became unwell with Covid in May 2020 while working on the frontline, during the first wave of the pandemic. She now lives with Long Covid and POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). In this podcast series, Julie shares her journey and lived experience, the symptoms and how each impacts daily life, not only the physical issues but also the impact this has had mentally and emotionally.
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Content ArticleThe 'Living with Long Covid' podcast series from Julie Taylor aims to raise awareness of Long Covid, and provide a platform of support, education and the lived experience.
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Content ArticleThis toolkit from NHS Employers aims to support the reduction in turnover of international staff in the NHS by improving their experience at work. It is hoped that this will then enable them to stay, thrive and build lasting careers in the NHS. It is for line managers and employers and should be used alongside the International Recruitment Toolkit and the Improving Staff Retention Guide to support your overall approach to recruiting and retaining international and domestic staff. The good practice principles and examples throughout can be applied to all professions.
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Content Article
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. Stephen talks to us about his time as turnaround Chair of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, how NHS boards can ensure they live their values and why creating a safe space to share concerns improves patient safety. -
Content ArticleDespite being the employees who often have the most direct contact with service users, NHS clinical support workers, such as healthcare assistants and maternity support workers, have long experienced a range of barriers to their effective deployment and development. These include a lack of standardised entry requirements, inconsistent task deployment and truncated career progression pathways. These have a detrimental impact on service delivery, including patient satisfaction. The degree to which local employers are able to determine the recruitment, deployment and development of support workers is a key reason why these issues endure; however, this article suggests that a deeper reason is the existence of a segmented labour market in the NHS, with support workers existing in a secondary market. This duality resides in the socio-economic differences between registered and non-registered staff. Recent NHS support workforce strategies present an opportunity to finally address the issues support staff face.
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Content Article
NHS Patient Safety Syllabus v. 2.1 (June 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Training & education
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the University of Warwick have developed this NHS Patient Safety syllabus to complement it as the basis for education and training for staff throughout the NHS. -
Content ArticleCompassionate leadership builds connection across boundaries, ensuring that the voices of all are heard in the process of delivering and improving care. In order to nurture a culture of compassion, organisations require their leaders – as the carriers of culture – to embody compassion and inclusion in their leadership. Where leaders model a commitment to high-quality and compassionate care, this impacts everything from clinical effectiveness and patient safety to staff health, wellbeing and engagement. The King's Fund's work, through courses, blogs and articles, explores the role of, and supports, leaders in creating a culture of compassion and inclusion.
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Content Article
Igniting your inner spirit – a blog by Sally Howard
Sally Howard posted an article in Leadership for patient safety
NHS and social care continues to have significant challenges. This blog cannot change that but it offers food for thought on how to stay afloat. -
News Article
‘Don’t overwork staff’, says trust with just one 52-week waiter
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Allowing staff enough rest has been ‘the key’ to elective recovery for an acute trust which has the lowest number of 52-week waiters in England, it has said. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells (MTW) Trust currently has just one patient who has waited 52 weeks or more on its lists, compared with a high of 976 at one point in April 2021. MTW is one of a handful of trusts with very few long waiters. All are relatively small trusts – and are not regional centres for specialist/tertiary patients – but their 52-week-waiters also represent less than 1% of their total list. MTW chief of service for the surgery division Greg Lawton told HSJ its success in tackling long waiters was down to “attention to detail” in tracking each patient, and not expecting staff to run too many extra sessions. “Any problems patients are having getting through their pathways are identified early and addressed,” he said. "Treatment had been prioritised on the grounds of clinical need, he added, with cancer treatments still going ahead and cancer targets being met." The trust, in the South East, has put on extra operating sessions to clear some of its backlog of patients but these had been limited in number, Dr Lawton said. “What we have never done is try to run too many and I think that may be the key. If you try to do too much you will burn staff out,” he said. The trust had “been mindful that staff need a break,” he added. “Morale is very important.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 February 2022 -
News ArticleRegistered nurses at Alhambra Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract yesterday, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention.. The collective bargaining agreement was the result of an almost six-month fight, which included an informational picket for patient safety and multiple other actions. So Hee Park, an ICU nurse at Alhambra, said, “We are so thrilled that after months of negotiations, we have ratified an agreement that provides substantial measures to ensure nurses feel supported and can continue to provide optimal patient care, as well as numerous provisions that will improve recruitment and retention of experienced nurses.” The contract includes several highlights that will help nurses create better outcomes for their patients, such as provisions for ensuring hospital compliance with existing registered nurse-to-patient safe staffing laws. The agreement also establishes a new Infectious Disease Task Force that will offer new protections against communicable diseases and guarantee levels of PPE supplies. The contract also expands workplace violence prevention plans for all hospital units, as well as stating that quality care be provided to all patients regardless of their immigration status. Under the contract, nurses will also receive proper orientation when they’re floated to new hospital units, improving care for patients. And, rather than being sent home at management's whims, RNs will be able to remain at work to provide meal and break relief to other nurses, bolstering safe staffing. These measures will ensure nurses are prepared to provide patients with the highest and safest levels of care possible, resulting in improved nurse retention at Alhambra, which will benefit the entire community long term. Read full story Source: National Nurses United, 10 November 2022
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News ArticleRegistered nurses (RNs) at US Prime Healthcare’s West Anaheim Medical Center (WAMC) will hold an informational picket today to protest chronic short staffing and its impact on safe patient care. Nurses say that the hospital should cancel elective surgeries because those beds and nurses are needed for other emergent patients. RNs in all medical departments are short-staffed, putting patient safety in jeopardy. “Nurses are under incredible pressure to care for patients beyond the state’s mandated safe staffing ratios due to the staffing crisis in our hospital,” said John Olarte, RN at WAMC. “The employer should be making beds available by canceling elective surgeries for the foreseeable future. Save those beds for the patients who most need them and at the same time give the RNs a chance to truly care for these patients by not forcing nurses to take patients that don’t need to be in the hospital right now. The public needs to know that the hospital is not doing everything they can to help the nurses care for patients.” “There is a staffing crisis because RNs are leaving,” said Sofia Rivera, RN in the emergency department at WAMC, “To attract and retain quality nurses — just staff the floors so the RNs do not have to pick up multiple extra shifts due to the revolving door of RNs in this hospital.” Nurses say they want a strong contract so they can recruit and retain RNs and they want to establish a health and safety committee to ensure they have a voice on issues of nurse safety and patient care. They have been in contract negotiations since May 2021. Their contract expired in June 2021. “We are getting slaughtered in the ER,” said Rasha Tran, RN. “Ambulances are just leaving their patients in the ER instead of waiting for an available bed because they are waiting too long. I don’t even know how we can sustain this demand to care for so many patients. It means less care for each patient. Continuing elective surgeries means that a regular bed is not available for a patient in the ER who is now is being held for hours or days before they are admitted. Even before this most recent Covid surge, nurses have been picking up extra 12-hour shifts to help our coworkers, often without a break for meals or rest periods.” Read full story Source: National Nurses United, 11 February 2022
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News Article
Top oncologist says Tayside cancer crisis was 'avoidable tragedy'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A crisis in cancer care at NHS Tayside could have been averted if the health board had publicly supported doctors who were criticised by an official report, according to a top oncologist. The last remaining breast radiotherapy specialist left at the end of January, with the board unable to replace him. Patients must now travel to Aberdeen, Glasgow or Edinburgh for radiotherapy. The situation has emerged three years after an investigation into chemotherapy treatment at Ninewells Hospital. NHS Tayside apologised to patients in 2019 after an investigation found doctors deviated from national standards on chemotherapy dosages given to breast cancer patients after surgery. A subsequent review found that the lower dosages were highly unlikely to have led to the deaths of any patients. Last year the doctors involved were cleared of any wrongdoing by the General Medical Council (GMC), who also found no fault with the treatment patients received. Some clinicians close to those involved told BBC Scotland the cancer doctors felt they had no choice but to leave because they did not have the backing of the board. Colleagues who support the oncologists say none of this needed to happen. Prof Alastair Munro, emeritus professor of radiation oncology at Dundee University, who previously worked as a cancer doctor in the department, said: "It's a totally avoidable tragedy, this should not have happened. "The first thing the health board need to do is to come clean, and say we got it wrong, we put our hands up, we want to start again with a clean slate and we want to attract good people to come to Tayside to deliver breast cancer services to the patients whose needs we serve." Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 February 2022
