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Showing results for tags 'Workforce management'.
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News Article
‘Perilous’ shortage of homecare workers leaves patients trapped in hospitals
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A “perilous” shortage of homecare workers is the biggest reason thousands of people are languishing longer in hospital than needed, driving up waiting lists and making people sicker, figures reveal. Almost one in four people unable to be discharged – sometimes for weeks – were trapped in hospital because they were waiting for home care, as agencies hand back contracts because staff are quitting owing to low pay, leaving 15% of jobs vacant. A fifth of people unable to be discharged were also waiting for short-term rehabilitation and 15% were waiting for a bed in a care home, according to analysis of data obtained using freedom of information requests and public records by Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation. It estimated that in April this year, one in six patients were in hospital because of delayed discharge, and the discharge of patients with a hospital stay of more than three weeks was delayed by 14 days on average. “People are ending up in hospital for malnutrition and dehydration, problems which, even if you supported people a little bit at home, would stop,” said Jane Townson, the director of the Homecare Association. “More providers are having to turn down work than usual and some are having to hand back people because they can’t do it.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 October 2022 -
News Article
Record number of nurses quitting the NHS
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Record numbers of nurses are quitting the NHS in England, figures show. More than 40,000 have walked away from the NHS in the past year - one in nine of the workforce, an analysis by the Nuffield Trust think tank for the BBC revealed. It said many of these were often highly skilled and knowledgeable nurses with years more of work left to give. And the high number of leavers is nearly cancelling out the rise in new joiners that has been seen. There were just 4,000 more joiners than leavers in the year to the end of June. But a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said progress was being made and the government was already halfway to meeting its target to increase the numbers of nurses working in the NHS in England during this Parliament by 50,000. He said a workforce strategy would be published soon, setting out how the NHS will continue to recruit and retain nurses in the coming years. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 September 2022 -
News Article
NHS trusts in England offered extra funding to recruit overseas nurses
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health service trusts in England are to be given additional funding to recruit nurses from overseas amid record staff shortages and increased demands. For nurses recruited between 1 January and 31 March 2023, trusts will be able to claim £7,000 per overseas nurse from NHS England. This is up to £4,000 higher than the financial support on offer during 2021-22. The move was unveiled by NHS Employers on its website last week and confirmed to Nursing Times by NHS England. NHS Employers said the additional funding reflected the rising costs of flights, accommodation and preparation costs for the nursing and midwifery objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). The OSCE forms part two of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s test of competence and is a practical exam in which overseas nurses and midwives are tested on their clinical and communication skills. Responding to the move, Unison’s head of health, Sara Gorton, said: “Extra cash to tackle the chronic staffing shortages in the NHS is essential.” She warned that, until NHS staff vacancies ware addressed, there “will be a need for overseas recruitment”. “But it has to be done in the best interests of the individual workers,” she added. Ms Gorton highlighted ongoing concerns about unethical recruitment of nurses from overseas and the poor treatment many report facing. “Sadly, overseas nurses are still being exploited by unscrupulous care and health employers,” she said. “This is no way to treat those who come to offer the UK their help.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: Nursing Times, 27 September 2022 -
News Article
One in four people could be left without a GP within a decade, doctors claim
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
One in four people could be left without a GP within a decade, medics say. The forecasts from Doctors’ Association UK suggest 16 million people in England could be left without access to a family doctor, amid growing staffing shortages. Today the new Health Secretary is expected to set out plans to boost access to GPs, following warnings that public satisfaction is the lowest on record. Research by the Health Foundation suggests that the NHS will lose up to 8,800 full-time equivalent GPs by 2030 if current trends continue. On Wednesday, Doctors’ Association UK said this could leave one in four people without access to a GP. Dr Lizzie Toberty, GP lead for the Doctors’ Association UK, said the workload of a family doctor now placed “unrealistic demands” on them. She said: “GPs will cut their hours, quit the NHS, or quit the country. We fear patients will suffer the same ‘postcode lottery’ for seeing their GP as many do now with getting an NHS dentist.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 21 September 2022 -
News Article
Empowering and investing in midwives could save millions of lives each year
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ms. Martinez is a midwifery student in Tulancingo, Mexico, working in an underserved community. “There is a health care house, but there are no permanent staff,” she explained. “In my community there are many youth pregnancies, and there are no dedicated health staff who could care for women or take care of teenagers.” This shortage is partly due to a widely held misconception that midwifery is an antiquated profession, she indicated. “I met with doctors and nurses who questioned me: Why was I studying this midwife career? They didn't see room for that.” Thursday is the International Day of the Midwife, a moment to recognise the enormous contributions of midwives to health care around the world. “Not only do their capable hands bring new life into the world, they are champions of sexual and reproductive health and rights, providing voluntary contraception and other essential services, while supporting childbearing women emotionally,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director, in her statement marking the day. Yet continued lack of recognition hinders not only the success of midwives but also the health and well-being of whole societies. “We will not achieve universal health coverage without them,” said Dr. Kanem, “or realize our aspirations to reduce maternal and newborn deaths, as agreed in the Sustainable Development Goals.” Read full story Source: United Nations Population Fund, 4 May 2022 -
Content ArticleWork stress is one of the leading causes of physical and mental problems among nurses and can affect patient safety. Nurses experiencing stress are more prone to make errors, which has consequences for the safety culture. This study, published in BMC Nursing, aimed to describe the findings of studies that examined the relationship between job stress and patient safety culture among nurses.
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Content ArticleThe number of people waiting for elective healthcare is at record levels. As well as compelling moral reasons to reduce NHS waiting lists, there is also a convincing economic case to go further and faster on elective recovery. We find that delivering against the target set by the Elective Recovery Plan would deliver an estimated increase in production of £73 billion over five years. But delivering a 30% increase in elective activity is a challenging task – and not one that data suggest will happen without further policy intervention. To help identify immediate opportunities for intervention, this report from the Progressive Policy Think Tank explores the most pressing bottlenecks in the elective treatment pathways.
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Content ArticleThe occupational therapy (OT) workforce is under huge pressure. Increased demand coupled with workforce shortages is challenging OTs’ capacity to provide essential support to people whose lives are impacted by long term health conditions and disability. In November 2022, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists surveyed OT practitioners across the UK about the workplace issues they’re facing now, and how these affect the services they deliver to the public. They also asked how practitioners are impacted personally, including whether they intend to continue working as OTs. The challenges shared by over 2,600 respondents have significant implications for the resilience of the current and future OT workforce, and the people who use OT services.
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Content ArticleBetween 2000 and 2010, multi-year funding increases and a series of reforms resulted in major improvements in NHS performance. However, performance has declined since 2010 as a result of much lower funding increases, limited funds for capital investment and neglect of workforce planning. Constraints on social care spending have also resulted in fewer people receiving publicly funded social care and a repeated cycle of governments promising to reform social care but failing to do so. As a result, the health and social care sector now finds itself facing unprecedented challenges, from increasing demand and growing waiting lists, to a workforce in crisis. This report by Chris Ham, former Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, analyses how a major public service that is highly valued by the public was allowed to deteriorate. It focuses on the period since 2010 and the factors that contributed to the decline of the NHS after the progress that had been made in the previous decade. While the current situation can feel overwhelming, the improvements that occurred between 2000 and 2010 show that change is possible where the political will exists. The paper concludes by setting out what now needs to be done to sustain and reform the NHS, with a focus on spending decisions, moderating demand and sharing responsibility with patients and the public, alongside a long-term perspective.
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Content ArticleThe Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) released its report on health human resources (HHR) in Canada. The report provides key findings designed to inform stakeholders (including governments). The report provides evidence-informed approaches to addressing the current challenges facing the Canadian health workforce. The three overarching themes were identified: support and retention deployment and service delivery planning and development.
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Content ArticleCalculating nurse staffing in the acute hospital has become a key issue but solutions appear distant. Community, mental health and areas such as learning disability nursing have attracted less attention and remain intractable. This review from Leary and Punshon aimed to examine current approaches to the issue across many disciplines.
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Content Article
In this joint statement, National Voices, a coalition of health and social care charities in England, supported by 82 charities and professional bodies, call on the Government to act on the serious challenges faced by the NHS and social care workforce, which it states are badly impacting upon people’s experience of health and care. Patient Safety Learning is one of the signatories of this statement. -
Content Article
Nursing notes on a scandal (31 March 2023)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Nursing
The tenth anniversary this year of the publication of the Francis Report in 20131 is marked by the largest scale of industrial action ever taken by nurses in the UK for better pay and conditions and, especially, safe staffing. In this article in the Future Healthcare Journal Alison Leary and Anne Marie Rafferty reflect on opportunities missed in the last decade in the attempt to secure safe staffing in nursing. They consider the aftermath of the public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and its consequences for nursing, and how policymakers have consistently ignored a growing body of evidence outlining the benefits of safe staffing. -
Content Article
NHS Employers: Improving staff retention (April 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Culture
As organisations navigate the ongoing impact and fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must focus on strengthening the supply of our highly valued workforce and ensure that both new and existing staff are supported and encouraged to remain. In partnership with NHS England and NHS Improvement, NHS Employers has refreshed their retention guidelines. There are two main objectives for this guide: first, ensuring it continues to draw on the latest learning and innovation from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced employers to critically re-examine how to retain NHS staff. Second, ensuring it supports the ambitions set out within the NHS People Promise, so that employers can work to make this a lived reality for all NHS staff. To help achieve these objectives, this guide explores the experiences of organisations NHS Employers has worked with on retention. -
Content ArticleA just and learning culture is the balance of fairness, justice, learning–and taking responsibility for actions. It is not about seeking to blame the individuals involved when care in the NHS goes wrong, nor the absence of responsibility and accountability. This report by NHS Resolution aims to promote the value of a person-centred workplace that is compassionate, safe and fair.
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Content ArticleThis plan from NHS England sets out how the NHS will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families. NHS England has engaged a wide range of stakeholders who supported the development of this plan. This includes women and families who have used or are using maternity and neonatal services, members of the maternity and neonatal workforce, leaders and commissioners of services, NHS systems and regional teams, and representatives from Royal Colleges, charities and other organisations.
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Content ArticleA shortage of nurses across the world, including in countries that provide nurses for international recruitment, has created a global health emergency, according to the latest report from the International Council of Nurses. The report, Recover to Rebuild: Investing in the Nursing Workforce for Health System Effectiveness, lays out the devastating impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on nurses around the world. It urges that investment in a well-supported global nursing workforce is needed if health systems around the world are to recover and be rebuilt effectively. It also warned against reliance on the “quick fix” of international recruitment instead of investing in nursing education, as this was contributing to staff shortages even in countries with a long tradition of educating nurses to work in higher income countries. The report, co-authored by the organisation's chief executive, Howard Catton, and nursing workforce policy expert Professor James Buchan, includes the findings of workforce surveys from more than 25 countries, including the UK, as well as other research.
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Content ArticleThis long read by the Nuffield Trust looks at priority areas where further development and action could help improve the effectiveness of virtual wards. It outlines different models for virtual wards and looks at how to ensure effective system oversight. It also highlights the need to ensure the workforce is equipped to run virtual wards effectively and safely.
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Content ArticleHealthcare IT News interviewed Wendy Deibert, senior vice president of clinical solutions at Caregility, a telehealth technology and services company, to talk about virtual nursing's role in helping tackle the nursing shortage.
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Content ArticleIn this BMJ article, Ryan Essex and colleagues consider whether patients have more to gain than to lose from healthcare worker strikes in poorly functioning health systems Available research on the relationship between strikes and patient harm is limited and offers mixed results, most of which are not widely generalisable across different care settings, researchers said. Overall, the researchers in the study observed a substantial decrease in the number of admissions or care visits during strikes, with broader care delivery changes varying based on who is striking. For example, when early-career physicians strike, research suggests wait times and length of stay are unaffected or become shorter. "While patient safety obviously matters, the overly narrow framing of strikes as harmful to patients is not supported by current evidence; this also shifts focus away from the structural failings that drive strike action in the first place," "When health workers lack other avenues to enact change, failing to strike against suboptimal working conditions may actually be more harmful to patient health in the long run."
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Content ArticleThis article by Katherine Virkstis, Managing Director of the US health thinktank Advisory Board, looks at the growing problem of a nursing 'skills gap' in the US. She argues that this area is often overlooked, but needs to be tackled to ensure patients are safe. A recent boom in new nurses graduating means that the balance of the nursing workforce is now less experienced than it has previously been. The growing complexity of patients and care approaches in healthcare systems also means that the demand for highly-trained nurses with specific skills has increased. The author explains this as a widening 'experience-complexity gap' and suggests four strategies to close the gap: Bolster emotional support and show staff your own vulnerability as a leader Dramatically scope the first year of practise Differentiate practice for experienced nurses Reinforce experienced nurses' identity as system citizens
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Carl Heneghan, Urgent Care GP and Professor of Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford, looks at how the shortage of doctors working in urgent care is affecting patient safety. He tells the story of a patient with a blocked catheter, highlighting that with early intervention, this should cause few complications, but if not treated promptly, it can cause bladder damage and chronic kidney failure. This example highlights the need to ensure patients are seen quickly if they have an urgent need in the community. The blog points out that current Government plans to scale up urgent community response teams are inadequate as they only cover 12 hours a day and there is a shortage of GPs willing to work in urgent care.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) sets out recommendations for the Government to tackle the workforce and workload crisis in general practice, and support GPs and their teams to meet the healthcare challenges of the 21st century. Based on a survey of more than 2,600 GPs and other practice team members from across the UK, the report provides a snapshot of what frontline staff have faced during one of the most difficult winters experienced in the NHS, and what they think needs to happen to make general practice more sustainable. Respondents describe a profession in crisis, with unmanageable workload and workforce pressures fuelling an exodus of fully qualified GPs.
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Content ArticleThe Nuffield Trust held its fifteenth Summit in March 2023. In these video interviews captured at the summit, health and care leaders talk about the challenges and issues currently facing the NHS and social care: Prof Kevin Fong on the immense cost of the pandemic to NHS staff Prof Martin Marshall on the range of challenges facing health and care Nigel Edwards on how the NHS gets on the road to recovery Jill Rutter on squeezed budgets and hospitals dominating health finances Dr Arif Rajpura on practical policies for reducing inequality Chris Hopson on promises to decentralise the NHS to better meet patient need
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Content ArticleThis paper identifies the critical reasons healthcare leaders today must invest in experience leadership and structure. Contributions to this paper were captured from 42 participating organisations through a 50-item survey designed by the Institute’s Experience Leaders Circle. The reveals six reasons why a dedicated experience effort, and a structure to support it, are essential to becoming a provider of choice. The study concludes with seven positive outcomes important for healthcare executives to consider.
