Opinion
Book reviews Developing Leadership Skills for Health and Social Care Professionals Annie Phillips Radcliffe Publishing £35 | 248pp ISBN: 978184619830
WITH 30 years’ experience as an NHS clinician and manager, Annie Phillips provides a practical guide for clinical practitioners on how to develop their leadership skills at work. Her book is written in a personal development style, which will appeal to those interested in working at their own pace. It is written to motivate nurses, to aid understanding about how teams and
organisations work, and to provide practical advice on how to develop skills such as time management, delegation, goal setting and change management. For Phillips, the starting point in this process is to develop assertiveness. The text is written for clinical nurses early in their professional careers, and engages readers in short exercises on a range of leadership essentials such as judging ability to delegate and evaluating performance through feedback from colleagues. Nurses at all levels are expected to act as leaders in their areas of practice, and this book may be useful in helping them achieve this. Naomi Elliott is a lecturer at the school of nursing and midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, and has a research interest in advanced practitioner leadership
International outlook
Mid-Staffs lessons travel THE FRANCIS report recommendations, the response of the nursing profession and subsequent government announcements all took up much column space in the UK nursing press in 2013. But it is not only here that the implications for nursing of poor care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust are being examined. In New Zealand, which also has a largely tax-funded health system, there has been interest in the recommendations. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) analysed the Francis report and questioned whether something similar could happen there (NZNO 2013). While there are many differences between the two health services, staffing levels are a common concern, particularly with some district health boards making cuts to focus on a narrow set of targets. New Zealand does have a Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit, established as a collaboration between the district health boards and the NZNO with government funding, which has developed a staffing methodology for nursing and 12 February 2014 | Volume 20 | Number 9
midwifery. But it has not been rolled out across the country or to all public and private sector providers. The NZNO also sees parallels with problems of skill mix and overreliance in some health boards on unregulated healthcare assistants, particularly in care of older people, despite the fact that New Zealand, unlike the UK, has retained the second-level enrolled nurse as a registered qualification. The profession wants greater research on the impact of different types of skill mix on patient care in New Zealand. Nursing leadership is a strong theme running through the Francis report and structural reforms over the years have taken their toll on investment in, and positioning of, nurse leaders in New Zealand. Mid-Staffordshire is seen as a further warning. Susan Williams is senior international adviser at the RCN Reference New Zealand Nurses Organisation (2013) NZNO Analysis of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry. tinyurl.com/NZ-midstaffs (Last accessed: January 6 2014.)
No-Mind Fraser Collins Amazon download tinyurl.com/no-mindcollins £5.98 | 125pp
STRESS HAS been defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘people’s natural reaction to excessive pressure. It is not a disease. But if stress is excessive… it can lead to mental and physical ill health’. In the NHS, approximately 30% of all sickness absence is due to stress, with a financial cost of up to £400 million each year. In addition, many NHS staff deal with patients who are stressed and expressing this in myriad ways, such as substance misuse and frequent attendance at hospital and GPs’ surgeries. It is, therefore, imperative that, as nurses, we are equipped to deal with our own stress as well as that of others. No-mind is a book that outlines an approach to coping with stress that has its origins in Zen Buddhism. It is a short book, inexpensive, and broadly covers some of the main aspects of stress-induced anxiety. However, it is too brief in its descriptions of interventions, such as mindfulness and self-regulation, and I found the discourse to be more ‘pop-psychology’ as opposed to evidence-based therapy. I did like the summary pages at the end of each chapter, although the summary for mindfulness did lack practical points. I do not feel that this book particularly adds to the body of self-help literature for stress and anxiety disorders. Healthcare professionals and patients could benefit more from the Overcoming series of books published by Basic Books, which take a cognitive behaviour approach to a range of physical and psychological problems and disorders, are evidence-based and contain many practical interventions. Donna Swinden is senior therapist at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, Durham NURSING MANAGEMENT
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Book reviews Developing Leadership Skills for Health and Social Care Professionals Annie Phillips Radcliffe Publishing £35 | 248pp ISBN: 978184619830
WITH 30 years’ experience as an NHS clinician and manager, Annie Phillips provides a practical guide for clinical practitioners on how to develop their leadership skills at work. Her book is written in a personal development style, which will appeal to those interested in working at their own pace. It is written to motivate nurses, to aid understanding about how teams and
organisations work, and to provide practical advice on how to develop skills such as time management, delegation, goal setting and change management. For Phillips, the starting point in this process is to develop assertiveness. The text is written for clinical nurses early in their professional careers, and engages readers in short exercises on a range of leadership essentials such as judging ability to delegate and evaluating performance through feedback from colleagues. Nurses at all levels are expected to act as leaders in their areas of practice, and this book may be useful in helping them achieve this. Naomi Elliott is a lecturer at the school of nursing and midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, and has a research interest in advanced practitioner leadership
International outlook
Mid-Staffs lessons travel THE FRANCIS report recommendations, the response of the nursing profession and subsequent government announcements all took up much column space in the UK nursing press in 2013. But it is not only here that the implications for nursing of poor care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust are being examined. In New Zealand, which also has a largely tax-funded health system, there has been interest in the recommendations. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) analysed the Francis report and questioned whether something similar could happen there (NZNO 2013). While there are many differences between the two health services, staffing levels are a common concern, particularly with some district health boards making cuts to focus on a narrow set of targets. New Zealand does have a Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit, established as a collaboration between the district health boards and the NZNO with government funding, which has developed a staffing methodology for nursing and 12 February 2014 | Volume 20 | Number 9
midwifery. But it has not been rolled out across the country or to all public and private sector providers. The NZNO also sees parallels with problems of skill mix and overreliance in some health boards on unregulated healthcare assistants, particularly in care of older people, despite the fact that New Zealand, unlike the UK, has retained the second-level enrolled nurse as a registered qualification. The profession wants greater research on the impact of different types of skill mix on patient care in New Zealand. Nursing leadership is a strong theme running through the Francis report and structural reforms over the years have taken their toll on investment in, and positioning of, nurse leaders in New Zealand. Mid-Staffordshire is seen as a further warning. Susan Williams is senior international adviser at the RCN Reference New Zealand Nurses Organisation (2013) NZNO Analysis of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry. tinyurl.com/NZ-midstaffs (Last accessed: January 6 2014.)
No-Mind Fraser Collins Amazon download tinyurl.com/no-mindcollins £5.98 | 125pp
STRESS HAS been defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘people’s natural reaction to excessive pressure. It is not a disease. But if stress is excessive… it can lead to mental and physical ill health’. In the NHS, approximately 30% of all sickness absence is due to stress, with a financial cost of up to £400 million each year. In addition, many NHS staff deal with patients who are stressed and expressing this in myriad ways, such as substance misuse and frequent attendance at hospital and GPs’ surgeries. It is, therefore, imperative that, as nurses, we are equipped to deal with our own stress as well as that of others. No-mind is a book that outlines an approach to coping with stress that has its origins in Zen Buddhism. It is a short book, inexpensive, and broadly covers some of the main aspects of stress-induced anxiety. However, it is too brief in its descriptions of interventions, such as mindfulness and self-regulation, and I found the discourse to be more ‘pop-psychology’ as opposed to evidence-based therapy. I did like the summary pages at the end of each chapter, although the summary for mindfulness did lack practical points. I do not feel that this book particularly adds to the body of self-help literature for stress and anxiety disorders. Healthcare professionals and patients could benefit more from the Overcoming series of books published by Basic Books, which take a cognitive behaviour approach to a range of physical and psychological problems and disorders, are evidence-based and contain many practical interventions. Donna Swinden is senior therapist at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, Durham NURSING MANAGEMENT
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 26, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
