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News Article
NHS must review ‘all disciplinary procedures’ by March following nurse’s suicide
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Trusts have been urged to reflect on their disciplinary procedures, and review them annually where required, following the death of a senior nurse who took his own life after being dismissed. NHS England’s chief people officer Prerana Issar has written to trust leaders to highlight Imperial College Healthcare Trust’s new disciplinary procedures, which were put in place following Amin Abdullah’s suicide. Mr Abdullah, a senior nurse at Charing Cross Hospital in west London, was suspended in September 2015 before being let go from his job that December. He died in February 2016 after setting himself on fire. An independent investigation criticised both the trust and its staff and concluded he had been “treated unfairly”. The summary report produced by the trust was labelled a “whitewash”, which “served to reassure the trust that it had handled the case with due care and attention”, and the delay of three months between the events and hearing were “troubling”. The report, which also criticised the delays as “excessive” and “weak” in their justification, said Mr Abdullah found the delay “stressful” and caused him to become “distressed”. In the letter sent on Tuesday, seen by HSJ, Ms Issar said: “The shared learning from Amin’s experience has demonstrated the need for us to work continuously and collaboratively, to ensure that our people practices are inclusive, compassionate and person-centred, with an overriding objective as to the safety and wellbeing of our people… our collective goal is to ensure we enable a fair and compassionate culture in our NHS. I urge you to honestly reflect on your organisation’s disciplinary procedure…" Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 December 2020 -
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Event
Nursing Times Workforce Awards 2020 - virtual ceremony
Patient Safety Learning posted a calendar event in Community Calendar
untilThe Nursing Times awards are free to attend and will give you the chance to highlight and reward innovation in workforce planning and management that will contribute to sustaining a workforce fit for the future. The summit will take place over two days, connecting nurses responsible for the recruitment, retention and development of the workforce to meet with solution providers and workforce experts. Book tickets -
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News ArticleA hospital trust in Bristol has been accused of risking lives after raising its patient-to-nurse ward ratio to dangerously high levels, having allegedly dismissed staff concerns and national guidance on safe staffing. University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) has introduced a blanket policy across its hospitals that assigns one nurse to 10 patients (1:10) for all general adult wards. This ratio, which previously stood at 1:6 or 1:8 depending on the ward, rises to 1:12 for nights shifts. The new policy, which is applicable to Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) and Weston General Hospital, also extends to all specialist high-care wards, which treat patients with life-threatening conditions such as epilepsy and anaphylaxis. Nurses at the trust have expressed their anger over the decision, saying they were never fully consulted by senior officials. Many are fearful that patient safety will be compromised as the second coronavirus wave intensifies, culminating in the unnecessary loss of life. “Patients who would have extra nursing staff because they are very acutely unwell and need close observation I think are going to unnecessarily die,” one nurse at BRI told The Independent. “Or if they survive, they’ll suffer long-term conditions because things were missed as they don’t have the staff at their bed side to watch the deterioration.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 November 2020
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Nurse Lucy Letby charged with murder after Chester hospital baby deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A nurse is due in court charged with eight counts of murder following an investigation into baby deaths at the Countess of Chester hospital neonatal unit in Cheshire. Lucy Letby, 30, is due to appear at Warrington magistrates court on Thursday. She was arrested for a third time on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the hospital, which began in 2017. A force spokesman said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised Cheshire police to charge a healthcare professional with murder in connection with an ongoing investigation into a number of baby deaths at the Countess of Chester hospital.” He said Letby was facing eight charges of murder and 10 charges of attempted murder relating to the period from June 2015 to June 2016. On Tuesday, police said parents of all the babies involved were being kept fully updated on developments and were being supported by officers. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 November 2020 -
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Nurse gaps must be considered in NHS winter planning, warns RCN
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Planning around what the NHS can deliver this winter must be based on how many nursing staff are available and the workload they can safely take on, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned. Amid widespread nursing shortages, the union has called on the government to “be honest” about nurse vacancies and address what steps need to be taken to keep staff and patients safe. “It is essential that learning is applied to planning for this winter, including what service can be delivered safely with the workforce available” Last week NHS England moved to its highest level of emergency preparedness. But the RCN warned it still had grave concerns around how services would be safely staffed, claiming it was too late to find the nurses needed to meet the anticipated demands of the incoming winter. Despite an increase in the number of nurses registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council this year, the college said there were still around 40,000 nurse vacancies in the NHS in England alone. These shortages, which were felt across all areas of nursing, had been exacerbated because of staff self-isolating or being off sick because of COVID-19, the RCN noted. The impacts of workforce shortages meant there was “enormous responsibility” on the nurses working and “intolerable pressure” on senior nursing leaders, it said. Unless local staffing plans prioritised safe and high-quality care, the few nurses in post were at risk of “burn out” this winter, the college added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Nursing Times, 9 November 2020 -
News Article
NHS England suspends one-to-one nursing for critically ill Covid patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nurses will be allowed to look after two critically ill COVID-19 patients at the same time after NHS bosses relaxed the rule requiring one-to-one treatment in intensive care as hospitals come under intense strain. NHS England has decided to temporarily suspend the 1:1 rule as the number of people who are in hospital very sick with Covid has soared to 11,514, of whom 986 are on a ventilator. The move comes amid concern that intensive care units, which went into the pandemic already short of nurses, are being hit by staff being off sick or isolating as a result of Covid. It follows a warning last week by Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, that the Covid resurgence could overwhelm the NHS. Dr Alison Pittard, the dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care, which represents doctors in ICUs, welcomed the shift to a more “flexible” nurse/patient staffing ratio in critical care. But she said it must be used only for as long as the second wave is putting units under serious pressure. “Covid has placed the NHS, and critical care in particular, in an unenviable position and we must admit everyone for whom the benefits of critical care outweigh the burdens. This means relaxing the normal staffing ratios to meet this demand in such a way that delivers safe care, but also takes account of the impact this may have on staff health and wellbeing." “The 1:2 ratio is a maximum ratio, to be used only to support Covid activity, [and] not for planned care, and is not sustainable in the long term. This protects staff and patients”, she said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 November 2020 -
News ArticleWidespread nursing shortages across the NHS could lead to staff burnout and risk patient safety this winter, the Royal College of Nursing has warned. The nursing union said a combination of staff absence due to the pandemic, and around 40,000 registered nursing vacancies in England was putting too much strain on the remaining workforce. The government says more than 13,000 nurses have been recruited this year. It has committed to 50,000 more nurses by 2025. It also hopes England's four-week lockdown will ease pressure on the NHS. The RCN has expressed concern that staff shortages are affecting every area of nursing, from critical care and cancer services to community nursing, which provides care to people in their own homes. The union said it was worried the extra responsibility and pressure placed on senior nurses could lead to staff "burnout", as hospitals struggle to clear the backlog of cancelled operations from the first wave of coronavirus and cope with rising numbers of new Covid patients, as well as the annual pressures that winter typically brings. Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 November 2020
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Content ArticleThis poster was created by the Royal Free Nursing team on the intensive care unit. It demonstrated how they reduced turnover of staff on the unit by implementing 'Joy in Work'.
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EventuntilHow can we better support nurses and midwives to flourish and thrive in their work? Join the King's Fund at this free online event to discuss the changes needed to empower nurses and midwives to shape and provide the compassionate, high-quality care that they aspire to in a sustainable way – through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The conversation will explore: workplace stressors, work conditions and ways of working – including workload, shift patterns and supervision – that have an impact on nurse and midwife wellbeing, and how these can be positively transformed organisational cultures and leadership styles – including those around diversity and inclusion, psychological safety and compassionate leadership at all levels – that need to be cultivated, and how progress can be achieved lessons and examples of good practice from across the health and care system, from both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Register
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Sask. nurse who was disciplined over Facebook comments wins court appeal
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Saskatchewan's highest court has ruled in favour of a nurse who was disciplined after she complained on Facebook about the care her grandfather had received in a long-term care facility. In a decision delivered Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal set aside a decision by the province's Registered Nurses Association that found Carolyn Strom guilty of unprofessional conduct. Strom was off-duty when she aired her concerns on Facebook in 2015, a few weeks after her grandfather's death. In her Facebook post, she said staff at St. Joseph's Integrated Health Centre in the town of Macklin, about 225 kilometres west of Saskatoon, needed to do a better job of looking after elderly patients. The lawyer for the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association argued that Strom personally attacked an identifiable group without attempting to get all the facts about her grandfather's care. In 2016, she was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $25,000 to cover the cost of the tribunal. After the association's decision, she received support from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, as well as nurses and civil liberties groups across the country. "Once I understood what this case meant ... once it was past being just about me, I didn't want someone else to have to go through the same thing. Because it's been rough," Strom said. Strom says she continued to fight the decision because she wanted nurses to be able to talk about, and advocate for, better care for family members publicly and in a respectful manner. "You should be able to properly advocate for family members, regardless of whether you're a health-care member." "And I felt that if this decision went wrong, it would actually hurt people who have healthcare members as family members. because they would have to be a little more careful and not express concerns for fear of punishment." Appeal court Justice Brian Barrington-Foote wrote in his decision that Strom's freedom of expression was unjustifiably infringed, and she had a right to criticise the care her grandfather received. The judge ruled that criticism of the healthcare system is in the public interest, and when it comes from front-line workers it can bring positive change. Read full story Source: CBC News, 6 October 2020 . -
Content ArticleThis resource includes: What is medicines management? The right medicine for the right patient and the right time Becoming an independent prescriber Competencies and maintaining competence Specialist prescribing Delegation Unregistered staff and social care Administration Prescribing and administration Transcribing Nursing associates and medicines management Summary of available guidance
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Content ArticleIn this video we reflect on a role play we presented to students, of a prescribing assessment. Our conversation focuses on the eight areas that prescribing students are asked to cover.
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News ArticleThe NHS 111 service has permanently stopped nurses and other healthcare professionals in a clinical division handling calls with people suspected of having COVID-19 after an audit of recorded calls found more than 60% were not safe. The audit was triggered in July after many of the medical professionals recruited to work in that clinical division of the 111 service sounded the alarm, saying they did not feel “properly skilled and competent” to fulfil such a critical role. An investigation was launched into several individual cases after the initial review found that assurances could not be given “in regard to the safety of these calls”, according to an email, seen by the Guardian, from the clinical assurance director of the National Covid-19 Pandemic Response Service. In a further email on 14 August, she told staff that after listening to a “significant number” of calls “so far over 60% … have not passed the criteria demonstrating a safe call”. A number of “clinical incidents” were being investigated, she said, because some calls “may have resulted in harm”. One case had been “escalated as a serious untoward incident with potential harm to the patient”. NHS England declined to answer questions about any aspect of these apparent safety failings, saying it was the responsibility of the South Central ambulance service (SCAS), which set up a section of NHS 111 called the Covid-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS). Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 October 2020
