NHS CHANGE DAY INSPIRES PILOT BY STUDENTS

Thousands of nurses across England have pledged to carry out one small task to improve the NHS, as part of an initiative supported by England’s chief nurse Jane Cummings. NHS Change Day on March 13 has so far generated almost 30,000 pledges, with 2,700 of them made by nurses and nursing students. One pledge has been made by a group of nursing students enrolled in the National Junior Leadership Academy, which was set up by the University of Nottingham to cultivate leadership skills in high-flying students. They have pledged to pilot a toolkit aimed at improving communication between staff and patients. The resource is being developed by nursing students Claire Allsopp, Chantal Bruce-McPherson, Tamara Chimiak, Judith Lonergan, Victoria Lonsdale, Christopher McGhee and Nicola Pountney. To sign up, go to changeday.nhs.uk

CHANCE TO NETWORK AT INNOVATION EXPO England’s chief nursing officer Jane Cummings is urging nurses to take the opportunity to network with high-profile NHS leaders at a conference next month. NHS England’s Health and Care Innovation Expo 2014, in Manchester on March 3 and 4, will be attended by NHS leaders and commissioners. Short courses and learning events will be provided at a pop-up university. Ms Cummings, who will speak at the event, said: ‘It is important that commissioners and providers see the work nurses do on the front line.’ Other speakers will include NHS England non-executive director Lord Victor Adebowale and the University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre director June Andrews.

NATHAN CLARKE

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Jeremy Hunt: NHS staff show incredible resolve to address problems

Hunt warns that more hospitals will go into special measures More trusts are likely be placed in special measures under the new-style inspections introduced by the chief inspector of hospitals, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned. He told delegates at a conference to mark the first anniversary of Robert Francis’s landmark report into failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust that more poor-performing hospitals would be uncovered. ‘We put 14 hospitals in special measures last year,’ said Mr Hunt. ‘That has never happened before, and there will be more to come.’ The chief inspector of hospitals Sir Mike Richards and his team are due to inspect 250 NHS trusts over the next two years. Professor Richards’s post, based in the Care Quality Commission, was created by the government in response to the Francis inquiry last year. Mr Hunt told the event, organised by Healthcare Conferences UK, that he had encountered ‘incredible resolve’ to address problems in the health service among NHS staff.

‘The fact that hospitals have recruited nearly 3,000 nurses in the past year alone is a really encouraging sign that we are supporting nurses in wards where they feel short-staffed,’ he said. However, RCN general secretary Peter Carter warned that the college’s own research, published in November, showed almost 20,000 nursing posts were vacant across England. ‘This would suggest that we are only just starting to turn the corner,’ said Dr Carter.

Numbers decision

England’s chief nursing officer Jane Cummings said staffing guidance, published in December by the National Quality Board, set an expectation for trusts to explain clearly how they decided on numbers for each ward. She told Nursing Standard: ‘We have seen trusts looking at nurse staffing levels and increasing them. We are also seeing them pay more attention to the numbers of staff available on a shift-by-shift basis. But we still need to do more work in mental health and community settings.’

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Hunt warns that more hospitals will go into special measures.

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