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Found 500 results
  1. Event
    Join Saphna for a landmark event bringing together school nurses, public health leaders, and youth advocates from across the UK to explore and celebrate the vital role of school and public health nursing in advancing prevention and early intervention for children and young people over the next decade. This year’s theme, Innovate, Adapt, Thrive: The Next Decade of School Nursing, reflects the agility and leadership of our profession in transforming the health and wellbeing of children and young people across the UK. This is a uniquely inclusive conference, ensuring representation beyond England to embrace perspectives from the wider UK community.
  2. Content Article
    Understaffing by nursing staff in hospitals is linked to patients coming to harm and dying unnecessarily. There is a vicious cycle whereby poor work conditions, including understaffing, can lead to nursing vacancies, which in turn leads to further understaffing. Is hospital investment in nursing staff, to eliminate understaffing on wards, cost-effective? This longitudinal observational study analysed data on 185 adult acute units in four hospital Trusts in England over a 5-year period. The study found that exposure to registered nurse understaffing is associated with increased hazard of death, increased chance of readmission and increased length of stay, while exposure to nursing support understaffing is associated with smaller increases in hazard of death and length of stay but reduced readmissions. Rectifying understaffing on inpatient wards is crucial to reduce length of stay, readmissions and deaths. According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence £10 000 per QALY threshold, it is cost-effective to eliminate understaffing by nursing staff. This research points towards investing in registered nurses over nursing support staff and permanent over temporary workers. Targeting particular patient groups would benefit fewer patients and is less cost-effective.
  3. Content Article
    The fundamental importance of having enough registered nurses present to deliver care is well supported by evidence. Lower registered nurse staffing levels are associated with higher risks to patients and poorer quality care.  The Royal College of Nursing has issued their position statement on registered nurse staffing levels for patient safety, care quality and cost effectiveness. The RCN has a duty to uphold standards in nursing, support all members of the nursing team and lead the way towards safe and effective care. In relation to safe staffing, the RCN Nursing Workforce Academy (launched as part of the RCN Institute of Nursing Excellence) is leading the way by: Launching refreshed nursing workforce standards, making explicit what we see as the fundamentals needed to underpin safe and effective care delivery. Sharing the evidence on safe staffing (this article has highlighted some key references, but a more formal summary of the evidence is being produced). Bringing together the nurse staffing guidance that exists for each specialty and making explicit where there are recommended registered nurse to patient ratios. Taking forward the RCN’s commitment to ‘safety critical redlines’ – minimum nurse to patient ratios to protect patients and staff from harm caused by low registered nurse staffing levels. Our forthcoming ‘nest’ community platform will offer all relevant resources, latest publications and networking opportunities.
  4. Event
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    This webinar will give the nursing team in all fields a better understanding of autism. It will offer practical strategies on reducing health inequalities and making reasonable adjustments in health and social care settings. Nurse experts will highlight common challenges autistic people may face in health and social care settings, and the approaches nurses can use to overcome barriers to effective care including person centred approaches, environmental approaches and communication skills. Nurses can learn from real practical examples of successfully supporting autistic people in a range of settings. And we will be showcasing the RCN’s recent position statement on autism and reducing health inequalities and the need for evidence based practice. Plus your questions answered by our panel of experts. Register
  5. Content Article
    The fundamental importance of having enough registered nurses present to deliver care is well supported by evidence. Lower registered nurse staffing levels are associated with higher risks to patients and poorer quality care. Here is the Royal College of Nursing's position statement on registered nurse staffing levels for patient safety.
  6. News Article
    The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is warning that a rapid rise in the number of nurse lecturer redundancies and severances shows the higher education financial crisis is spreading through nursing courses in England and posing a risk to domestic workforce plans. This comes just days after the UK government announced immigration plans which could lead to an exodus of international nursing staff, and poses a serious risk to patient safety. The RCN believes the UK government must take action to protect all nursing courses. The capacity and state of the educator workforce must be a key consideration in nursing workforce planning. The RCN say the crisis in higher education is a real threat to the supply of nurses into the workforce and poses a serious risk to patient safety, potentially derailing the government’s new NHS 10-Year Health Plan due to be published this summer. A nurse educator workforce strategy and funded action plan which addresses recruitment and retention issues is needed, alongside those planned for the NHS and NHS workforce. Freedom of Information requests, sent by the RCN to universities in England offering nursing courses, have revealed nurse educator jobs decreased in 65% of institutions between August 2024 and February 2025. Nurse educators have a critical role to play in ensuring we have a nursing workforce that's sufficiently able and equipped to deliver high quality, innovative, safe and effective care to meet current and future population needs. They're essential to growing the nursing profession and keeping patients safe. Read full story Source: RCN, 15 May 2025
  7. Content Article
    The global nursing workforce has grown from 27.9 million in 2018 to 29.8 million in 2023, but wide disparities in the availability of nurses remain across regions and countries, according to the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Council of Nurses (ICN) and partners. Inequities in the global nursing workforce leave many of the world’s population without access to essential health services, which could threaten progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), global health security and the health-related development goals.  The new report released on International Nurses Day provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the nursing workforce at global, regional and country levels. Consolidating information from WHO’s 194 Member States, the evidence indicates global progress in reducing the nursing workforce shortage from 6.2 million in 2020 to 5.8 million in 2023, with a projection to decline to 4.1 million by 2030. But, the overall progress still masks deep regional disparities: approximately 78% of the world’s nurses are concentrated in countries representing just 49% of the global population.   Low- and middle-income countries are facing challenges in graduating, employing and retaining nurses in the health system and will need to raise domestic investments to create and sustain jobs. In parallel, high-income countries need to be prepared to manage high levels of retiring nurses and review their reliance on foreign-trained nurses, strengthening bilateral agreements with the countries they recruit from.   
  8. News Article
    A Northern Ireland nurse failed to properly manage a dying patient's pain on the last night of her life, a tribunal has heard. Veteran staff nurse Bernard McGrail has been issued with a four-month suspension order over his failings in dealing with an end-of-life care resident while on a night shift at a Spa Nursing Homes Group facility in July, 2021. A Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practice panel said Mr McGrail's misconduct had caused "emotional distress" to the family of the woman, identified as Resident A. It added: "There was a real risk of harm to Resident A through the inadequate management of their pain on their last evening." A remorseful and apologetic Mr McGrail admitted a series of allegations including: a failure to appropriately manage Resident A’s pain; failure to investigate whether Resident A’s syringe driver was working correctly and a failure to escalate that the alarm on Resident A’s syringe driver sounded repeatedly. Mr McGrail also admitted that without clinical justification, he administered a 5mg doses of Apixiban to Resident B on three dates on October 2020. And on occasions between April 2020 and May 2022 failed to administer and/or record the administration of named medications to six other residents. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Belfast Telegraph, 12 May 2025
  9. News Article
    Anyone misleading the public and describing themselves as a nurse without the relevant qualifications and registration will be committing a crime, under new measures announced by the government to protect the title ‘nurse’ in law.  The move will help to boost protections and safety for both patients and staff, driving up standards and improving patient experience across the NHS through the government’s Plan for Change. Currently, anyone – including those struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for serious misconduct or criminal convictions – can call themselves a nurse. This can result in the public thinking they’re getting advice and care from an expert professional like a nurse when they aren’t.   Previous reported examples of the job title being misused include someone calling herself a nurse at a large public event after being struck off and another reportedly masquerading as an aesthetic nurse. There will be exemptions for relevant professions like veterinary nurse, dental nurse and nursery nurse, where the title ‘nurse’ is legitimately used. The government is listening to nurses and recognises they are the backbone of the NHS, and today’s announcement follows campaigning by unions for the government to act on the issue, as well as by Dawn Butler MP who introduced a Ten-Minute Rule Bill earlier this year to protect the title ‘nurse’.  Paul Rees MBE, Interim Chief Executive and Registrar at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said: "The public should always feel confident that anyone using the title ‘nurse’ is a registered professional with all the safeguards that brings. We look forward to working with the government and our stakeholders to deliver on it. In the meantime, it is already an offence for somebody to hold themselves out as a registered nurse when they are not." Read full story Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 12 May 2025
  10. Content Article
    This study looked at the factors influencing nurses' recognition and response to patient deterioration. Seventeen studies were reviewed and appraised. Recognising patient deterioration was encapsulated in four themes: (1) assessing the patient; (2) knowing the patient; (3) education and (4) environmental factors. Responding to patient deterioration was encapsulated in three themes; (1) non-technical skills; (2) access to support and (3) negative emotional responses. The study concluded that issues involved in timely recognition of and response to clinical deterioration remain complex, yet patient safety relies on nurses’ timely assessments and actions.
  11. Content Article
    Insulin prescribing in the UK has tripled in the past decade, in particular due to an increase in use among those living with type 2 diabetes, now the largest group of insulin users. As a result, nurses in general practice and the community are increasingly expected to be skilled in supporting people living with type 2 diabetes with insulin therapy and associated glucose monitoring. The management of insulin therapy requires knowledge of the type of diabetes it is being used for and appropriate dosing, as well as correct injection technique, to prevent complications and medication errors. Diabetes nursing specialist Debbie Hicks shares key points on the management of insulin therapy for nurses in primary care.
  12. Event
    Join the Royal College of Nursing for the launch of a new exhibition on the history of healthcare and nursing in prisons, from the nineteenth century to the present. The launch event will include a panel discussion on the past, present and future of prison health, drop-in activities and a chance to view the exhibition. Refreshments will be provided. Speakers include: Donna Goddard, Ann Norman, Sobanan Naranthiren and Liz Walsh. Register
  13. Content Article
    In this blog, Justean Winter shares her experience of working as an agency nurse in the NHS. She describes how she was told not to report patient safety issues she witnessed. After raising concerns about patient care, Justean received several accusations and was eventually blocked from working in the NHS. She outlines why she continues to try and raise awareness of the patient safety and organisational issues she witnessed. Patient safety issues and reporting I have been a nurse for 33 years, and worked for an NHS Health Board via an agency for a number of years. In the Autumn of 2022, I was working in the A&E department when we were told not to submit Datix reports without checking them with managers first. Datix is the incident reporting software widely used in the NHS for reporting patient safety issues. We weren’t able to report anything we saw, including short staffing, bullying and patients being left without treatment. When I or another member of staff asked about why we couldn’t report what we witnessed, we were told by the managers to stop asking and just get on with our job. Later that year, I was asked to work in paediatric A&E, but knew I wasn’t up to date with all the relevant training. I raised this but was told to go and do the shifts anyway. The atmosphere in the wider A&E department was one of keeping quiet about any concerns. If you raised concerns you were seen as a trouble maker. Some examples of issues I raised were patients being denied end-of-life medication, patients with diabetic ketoacidosis being left without treatment and nurses wearing name badges that didn’t belong to them. There were also some issues with staff conduct that could pose a threat to patient safety that I was told not to mention if I wanted to keep my job. At this point, I started reporting incidents anyway, as I was seeing patient safety issues that I just couldn’t ignore. Accusations and suspension In October, I was told by my agency that there had been a complaint against me, dating from that July. I asked to see the details, but they wouldn’t show me anything. I also asked why it hadn’t been raised with me sooner, but was just told there would be no statement needed and there would be no investigation. Then in March 2023, my agency contacted me to tell me about another complaint they had received against me. It turned out to be the same one they had mentioned before, but now the Health Board wanted a statement from me. I did the statement and nothing came of it again. I felt that something underhand was going on. Then in April, one of the nurse managers pulled me into an office and accused me of stealing cash from one of the patients. At this point, I felt I was being bullied because I was refusing to keep quiet about issues on the ward. There were other incidents of intimidation, such as being squared up to in the corridor by another nurse about whose care I had concerns. I was on holiday in May when I received a series of texts from my agency telling me all my shifts had been cancelled. When I came back I realised I was unable to book any shifts, and it turned out that I had been totally suspended by the Health Board. My agency then told me that I had been accused of stealing morphine back in January. Five months had passed and I was only being told about it now! I vigorously defended myself against these accusations. In June, I was called to a Zoom meeting to discuss my suspension. I wasn’t allowed to see any of the complaints or any evidence, but the accusation was used as the reason for my suspension. I asked them to check the CCTV and was told that there was no CCTV in the department. My contact at the agency told me they would be collecting more statements and coming up with a plan for a way forward. When I asked about what the process was, I received no response. After the meeting, I wrote a long email to the Health Board detailing all my concerns, including about the inability to submit Datix reports and inadequate care standards I had witnessed . I later wrote a further letter to 18 members of the Health Boards as well as the Senedd and Healthcare Improvement Wales (HIW), sharing my patient safety concerns but heard nothing back. The Senned Minister for Health and Social Services said that the concerns I had raised were employment concerns rather than safety ones but that they would keep the letter on file for 10 years. At this stage, life was really difficult. I couldn’t get any work—there was a red flag against my name so I was basically unemployable. I asked the agency what was going on, but again got no response. My career and life were being ruined and I hadn’t done the things I was accused of. The same day I delivered the letters, my agency phoned to tell me I had been referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). It wasn’t until December 2023 that I heard from the NMC. The referral stated that I lacked insight to reflect and had refused to do a communication course—no missing money or morphine had ever been mentioned in the referral. I was cleared by the NMC in January 2024. I later found out through court documents relating to my employment tribunal that seven managers and an entire health board were responsible for referring me to the NMC—ostensibly on the grounds of communication issues. It just doesn’t add up. Employment tribunals When I contacted ACAS in September 2023, they told me that I was within the timeframe for an employment tribunal. But three judges since then have told me I am out of date and have refused to read my evidence bundle because it was too long. One judge told me I should “Stop criticising the NHS” and accused me of having a personal vendetta. But all I want is for the truth to come out and to be able to resume my career. I am now on my fourth appeal to try and get my case heard at tribunal. I’ll continue to do everything I can to pursue justice. Vulnerability as an agency nurse I believe that my status as agency staff made me vulnerable to repercussions. There is no support mechanism or process to follow as an agency nurse when raising concerns, and as I wasn’t employed directly by the Health Board, I was more easy to falsely accuse and get rid of. The personal cost of my experience has been huge. We have had to put our home up for sale because I’ve been unable to work since May 2023. I have developed post-traumatic stress disorder and a fear of the NHS because of what I have witnessed. I believe patients are dying because they aren’t receiving the care they need, and that it is being covered up. There are so many issues that the public need to be aware of and that NHS organisations need to deal with to keep patients safe and protect staff. Related reading My experience as an agency nurse A dropped instrument, washed in theatre and immediately reused: a story from a theatre nurse Speaking up for patient safety: A new interview series about raising concerns and whistleblowing My experience of speaking up as a healthcare assistant in a care home Share your speaking up story If you have spoken up about unsafe care or have been a whistleblower in healthcare or social care, we would love to hear from you about your experience. You can: contribute to our community conversation (you’ll need to sign up first) comment on any hub post (you’ll need to sign up first) contact us at [email protected] and we can share your story anonymously. You can find information about organisations that offer support and guidance for staff about speaking up and whistleblowing on the hub.
  14. Content Article
    The Thirlwall Inquiry was set up to examine events at the Countess of Chester Hospital following the trial and subsequent convictions of Lucy Letby for the murder and attempted murder of babies at that hospital. This report was commissioned by the Thirlwall Inquiry. It summarises key themes from responses to a questionnaire sent by the Inquiry to all other NHS trusts with maternity and neonatal units in England. With the evidence and submissions phase of the Inquiry now closed, the Nuffield Trust publish it here in the form submitted to the Inquiry as of April 2024. Overarching themes For almost all the areas covered in the questionnaire there were existing regulations, mechanisms or guidance in place in the NHS. Within neonatal services there were additional reporting routes and requirements to take into account over and above those which apply across the NHS as a whole. In a small number of areas (for example use of CCTV) we found limited guidance. The infrastructure within trusts affected the processes they have in place to manage safety and risks. For example, there was variation between trusts in the availability of electronic systems to support access to medical records, medicines management and storage facilities, the maturity of systems for data collection, reporting and triangulating information, and ease of access to the ward for parents. However, policies, structures and processes on their own are not sufficient to ensure services are safe and effective. A wide body of research indicates that culture and leadership are critical, and a positive culture is needed for systems and processes to achieve their aims. Where there is variation in how trusts manage issues, this will reflect a combination of the circumstances of the organisation and the leadership approach to addressing issues. Some organisational circumstances are unique, but there are many factors affecting the whole NHS, or neonatal care specifically, for example resource and workforce pressures. Culture and leadership at an organisational level are also impacted by national leadership and management of the NHS. In some cases the quantity of guidance, reporting requirements, number of external regulators, and the frequency with which these change, leads to a risk that responding to external scrutiny takes precedence over learning and action within the organisation.
  15. Event
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    Recent care scandals show that the system has been failing too many people with learning disabilities and autism for too long and we need a new approach to restraint. This RCNi event will look at restraint, how it can be avoided - and when it can’t be avoided how it can be done safely and ethically with a human rights approach. Evidence shows that nurses are seeing more behaviours that challenge than ever before, so it's important to have the skills and knowledge to deal with situations when they arise. As well as examining issues around restraint and seclusion, our panel of experienced nurses will give you practical strategies to use restraint effectively and safely for both you and the service user. Register
  16. News Article
    The former manager of an NHS electroconvulsive therapy clinic has been suspended from nursing after bullying her colleagues. Award-nominated nurse Kara Hannigan is no longer an employee of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board after a regulator found she harassed colleagues, likened the appearance of one to a "prostitute", and created a "degrading" work environment. Hannigan – who was paid more than £53,000 a year as an experienced band seven nurse – qualified in 1991 and became manager of the clinic in 2009. Staff first reported her behaviour in 2015 but after years of inaction by the health board they finally resorted to taking their concerns to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Last year a misconduct panel upheld a series of damning allegations against Hannigan and this month it imposed a 12-month suspension. Former colleagues of Ms Hannigan told WalesOnline they welcomed the outcome but that lessons must be learned over the health board's failure to properly deal with the issue a decade ago. They questioned why the health board allowed her to continue working at the ECT clinic – which is based at Llandough hospital and uses electric currents to treat depression – until last November when she was forced by the regulator to start working from home. The misconduct panel found Hannigan's campaign of bullying and harassment occurred between 2014 and 2019. Her behaviour was found to have affected four staff members including two who were subjected to a "hostile" and "intimidating" environment. Hannigan humiliated one nurse in front of other staff by commenting on her appearance as "something like prostitutes would wear" and a "blue mascara girl". In 2015 one nurse told Hannigan the toxic behaviour was making her unwell and that she would be reporting it to a senior nurse in the health board. The next day Hannigan called the victim into her office and informed her she was being placed on a capability process – despite the nurse having a record of strong performance appraisals. The panel found the capability process was bogus and told Hannigan it was "an attempt on your part to deflect from and cover up" the bullying. Panel chairman John Kelly noted Hannigan was so confident in her position that she "felt able to share with another member of staff how she intended to place [the victim] on the capability plan" before the victim had a chance to make a bullying allegation. Read full story Source: Wales Online, 26 March 2025
  17. News Article
    After a ten-month battle, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck team has obtained NHS data revealing 1 in 3 of England’s hospitals are missing at least 10% of their planned-for nurses across their wards. After the Mid-Staffordshire scandal, the government at the time promised to shine a light on the nursing understaffing that had contributed to putting patients at risk, sometimes even costing their lives. For several years, crucial data was publicly available from NHS England. But in 2018, it was quietly shelved, and it hasn’t been possible to see it nationally since. The situation is even more serious in critical care where 20% of nurses were missing from 1 in 5 units. While in neonatal care that increases to 1 in 3 wards. Watch the full news story Source: Channel 4 News, 20 March 2025
  18. News Article
    Could killer nurse Lucy Letby have been stopped sooner? She was convicted of killing seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. Now a public inquiry is examining whether bosses at the Countess of Chester Hospital failed to act fast enough when suspicions were raised. The inquiry is not examining the question of Letby’s guilt. Instead, it is exploring how she was able to kill repeatedly, hearing more than 60 days of witness evidence and reviewing thousands of emails, text messages and handwritten notes. The hurried memos from doctors about babies collapsing in Letby’s presence and curt replies from hospital execs reveal, in vivid detail, the chaos behind the scenes. Judith Moritz, who has covered the Letby case from the start, looks at the evidence to piece together how events unfolded - and why it took more than a year to stop a killer. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 March 2025
  19. News Article
    Lady Thirlwall has rejected calls from senior managers to pause the official inquiry into the deaths of infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital. On the last day of hearings yesterday, she said — regardless of the outcome of a referral to the Criminal Cases Review Commission by Lucy Letby’s legal team — her final report would highlight “a total failure of safeguarding at every level”. The neonatal nurse was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of others at two trials in 2023 and 2024. Appeals were rejected. Lady Thirlwall’s inquiry was tasked with looking at three things: the experience of families at the trust, whether suspicions should have been raised earlier and the police called, and the effectiveness of governance and processes. The legal team representing the former chief executive, nursing director, medical director, and HR director wrote to the inquiry last month to argue that the new evidence produced by Letby’s lawyers and the possibility of the convictions being overturned undermined the basis of the inquiry. Lady Thirlwall said at the start of the inquiry that she had dismissed doubts about the safety of Letby’s conviction as “noise”. She added: “The inquiry has been conspicuously fair. [It] does not become unfair because there is a possibility that all the convictions are unsafe. I completely accept and have approached the inquiry in this way; [that] it is essential to guard against hindsight in covering the actions of people eight, nine, and 10 years ago… “It is not the actions of Lucy Letby I am scrutinising, it is the actions of the people in the hospital, what they knew and should have known at the time. “There are already large numbers of concessions about what wasn’t done that should have been done [at] the organisations, the hospital, including the doctors and the managers. And that managers should have communicated better with patients and provided pastoral care to the doctors.” She noted an “acknowledgement that there was a total failure of safeguarding at every level and that will not change. Inevitably [that] will feature in any report.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 March 2025
  20. News Article
    Lawyers acting for four former executive directors at the Countess of Chester Hospital have called for the Thirlwall inquiry to be paused while the criminal charges against Lucy Letby are reviewed. Acting for the former hospital leaders - chief executive Tony Chambers, medical director Ian Harvey, director of nursing Alison Kelly and HR director Sue Hodkinson - Kate Blackwell KC asked inquiry chair Lady Thirlwall to consider halting all or part of the proceedings until the Criminal Case Review Commission had made a decision about allowing another appeal or retrial. She stated there was a risk the real causes of the infants’ deaths could be missed. Letby was convicted in 2023 of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six more. She was later found guilty of another attempted murder charge at a second trial. The offences happened in 2015 and 2016. The Court of Appeal upheld her convictions last year. But a new legal team for Letby has referred her convictions to the CCRC, raising concerns about the disclosure of evidence and citing new evidence from senior clinical experts that contradicts what the juries heard. However, families of the jailed nurse’s victims said the senior managers were attempting to evade responsibility for their “many failures”. “The applications to stop the inquiry are, on Letby’s part, an attempt to control the narrative, and on the part of the executives to avoid criticism,” said Richard Baker KC, representing the parents of 12 of the babies. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 18 March 2025
  21. News Article
    The hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies is now being investigated for gross negligence manslaughter as well as corporate manslaughter, police have announced. Cheshire Constabulary has released a statement saying that its corporate manslaughter investigation into the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been “widened”. “We will not be confirming the number of people involved or their identity" The scope of the investigation now includes gross negligence manslaughter, which is where a death is caused by an otherwise lawful but grossly negligent “act or omission” by an individual or individuals. The corporate manslaughter investigation, which is looking into the actions of senior leaders at the hospital trust in relation to deaths at the neonatal unit, was launched in October 2023. This happened a few months after the conviction of 35-year-old Letby for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others while working as a neonatal nurse at the trust in 2015 and 2016. Letby was later found guilty of attempting to murder a seventh baby. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Nursing Times, 14 March 2025
  22. Content Article
    In this blog published by the Royal College of Nursing, Jean Almond, Programme Manager at Parkinson's UK, discusses improving the delivery of time critical Parkinson’s medication to care home residents.
  23. News Article
    A nurse is taking legal action against a Scottish health board after she was suspended for complaining about sharing a changing room with a transgender colleague. Sandie Peggie, a nurse at NHS Fife, has claimed she was subjected to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act 2010 by being made to share a changing room with Dr Beth Upton, who is a transgender woman. At the time of the incidents, Ms Peggie, a nurse, and Dr Upton, a medic, were both employed at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy and worked in the A&E department. According to Ms Peggie, in late August 2023, she entered a changing room in the A&E department and saw Dr Upton getting dressed, which made her feel embarrassed to get changed and led her to leave the room. Then, in late October or early November 2023, Ms Peggie was getting changed in the changing room, dressed in her bra and trousers, when Dr Upton came in. Again, the nurse said she felt embarrassed at changing in front of Dr Upton, so replaced her top and left the room. Ms Peggie said she then entered the changing room on 24 December 2023 to take care of a personal hygiene need and ended up being left alone with Dr Upton after two members of staff left. Following the third incident, Dr Upton refused to leave the changing room and later made a complaint of bullying against Ms Peggie. On 30 December 2023, NHS Fife placed Ms Peggie on special leave and then, on 4 January 2024, the health board suspended her. At the time the incident took place, it was NHS policy to allow transgender people to use the changing rooms that align with their gender identity. This is not the first time nurses have threatened legal action in an NHS changing room row. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Nursing Times, 20 February 2025
  24. News Article
    A year ago Jessica Vaughan stepped into the emergency department (ED) as a newly qualified nurse, with a first class degree and a Nursing Times ‘student nurse of the year’ award under her belt. She was brimming with enthusiasm, but now feels depleted and disillusioned "As a previous student editor for the Nursing Times, I said I would write an article on my experiences. But words failed me. After my previous articles declaring hope, resilience, and the beauty of nursing, writing a litany of complaints felt shameful. "But the truth is, I am not achieving what I set out to. Maybe I was simply too idealistic and naive. But there is something fundamentally wrong if eager new nurses are burning out so quickly. "I do not know the answer but I do urge those of us on the frontline to keep using our voices to tell the truth about what is happening. We owe it to our patients but also ourselves." Read full story (paywalled) Source: Nursing Times, 25 February 2025 Further reading on the hub: The crisis of corridor care in the NHS: patient safety concerns and incident reporting Patient Safety Learning's response to RCN report: on the frontline of the UK’s corridor care crisis How corridor care in the NHS is affecting safety culture: A blog by Claire Cox A nurse's response to the NHSE guidance on their principles for providing safe and good quality care in temporary escalation spaces A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift
  25. Content Article
    A set of case studies published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) with a focus on duty of candour.
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