News
Safe staffing group broadens its focus By Janet Snell @janet_snell A LEADING nurse campaign group is to turn its focus to the community sector in its fight for safe nurse staffing levels. The Safe Staffing Alliance, a group of leading nurses brought together by RCN Publishing, says patient care is at risk when there are more than eight patients to one nurse on adult acute wards. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the first-ever guidelines for safe nurse staffing levels on acute inpatient wards in England in July. NICE has said it will produce guidelines for community settings in future, but a publication date has yet to be announced. The alliance has decided to broaden its focus to the community sector, and has invited the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) chief executive Crystal Oldman to join
On the move FROM JANUARY 1, the new chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) will be Dame Janet Finch. Professor Finch is said to bring substantial experience to the NMC, which she gained as vice chancellor of Keele University, Staffordshire, and in a number of non-executive director roles. She is also a member of the Medical Research Council and Science and Technology Honours Committee. The current chair, Mark Addison, steps down at the end of December. JIM WELLS has replaced Edwin Poots as Northern Ireland Executive minister for health, social services and public safety. Mr Wells, who has served as deputy chair of the Assembly Health Committee since 2011, assumes a portfolio that he describes as ‘the most challenging position’ in the executive. When Mr Poots was appointed in 2011, it was announced that he would serve for two years and then be succeeded by Mr Wells. See analysis, page 9 6
November 2014 | Volume 21 | Number 7
Queen’s Nursing Institute invited to join nurse leaders in fight for better care in the community the group. The QNI’s ongoing campaign Right Nurse, Right Skills calls for increased investment in community nursing to improve nursing care in people’s homes. The RCN has also called on the government to boost community nursing numbers by 10,000, warning that the role could ‘face extinction’ by 2025. Dr Oldman said of the invitation: ‘The alliance has done some great work in the acute sector and it is right that they should be turning their attention to community nursing. The QNI has campaigned for the right nurses with the right qualification in the right volume when it comes to caring for people in their own homes.
Use the 6Cs to help patients die well, says cancer specialist NURSES SHOULD use the 6Cs to build relationships and communicate better with dying patients and their families, a leading cancer nurse has said. Shelley Dolan, chief nurse at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, said the 6Cs, courage, compassion, commitment, communication, competence and care, could be used as a template by nurses to help patients die well. Dr Dolan was speaking at a conference in London on improving end of life care. The event focused on implementing the government’s new Priorities of Care for the Dying Person requirements, which replaces the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). The new approach was drawn up on behalf of the Department of Health by the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People in response to Baroness Julia Neuberger’s independent review of the LCP. It has five priorities, including the importance of creating individual care plans, sensitive communication with families and respecting patients’ wishes.
‘But we still have a long way to go before staffing levels are sufficient.’ The NICE guidance is designed to be used by hospital board members, senior managers and nurses to set ward staffing on a shift-by-shift basis. Nurses in charge of wards should raise the alarm when faced with ‘red flag’ events, for example when patients do not receive basic care such as pain relief or help to visit the bathroom, that indicate a need for more skilled nurses or more staff. Safe staffing guidance for maternity settings will be published in January, and accident and emergency settings in May 2015.
Dr Dolan, who is also clinical director of the London Cancer Alliance, said: ‘The 6Cs apply to all nurses. For me, if you get those right in an end of life care setting, you will get it all right. Authentic and genuine communication with patients and relatives is vital. How our citizens die is a measure of the society we live in.’
Nominations for 2015 nurse awards are now welcome DO YOU have a nursing colleague who embodies clinical excellence and innovation? Then why not nominate them for the Nursing Standard 2015 Nurse Awards? Each year RCN Publishing celebrates best nursing practice with awards in areas such as child, mental and public health. The awards are open to nurses, midwives and health visitors registered to practise in the UK. Healthcare assistants, assistant practitioners and nursing students can also enter. Nurses can nominate themselves, their team, a colleague or another team. The deadline for nominations is January 16. Go to www.nurseawards.co.uk NURSING MANAGEMENT
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Safe staffing group broadens its focus By Janet Snell @janet_snell A LEADING nurse campaign group is to turn its focus to the community sector in its fight for safe nurse staffing levels. The Safe Staffing Alliance, a group of leading nurses brought together by RCN Publishing, says patient care is at risk when there are more than eight patients to one nurse on adult acute wards. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the first-ever guidelines for safe nurse staffing levels on acute inpatient wards in England in July. NICE has said it will produce guidelines for community settings in future, but a publication date has yet to be announced. The alliance has decided to broaden its focus to the community sector, and has invited the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) chief executive Crystal Oldman to join
On the move FROM JANUARY 1, the new chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) will be Dame Janet Finch. Professor Finch is said to bring substantial experience to the NMC, which she gained as vice chancellor of Keele University, Staffordshire, and in a number of non-executive director roles. She is also a member of the Medical Research Council and Science and Technology Honours Committee. The current chair, Mark Addison, steps down at the end of December. JIM WELLS has replaced Edwin Poots as Northern Ireland Executive minister for health, social services and public safety. Mr Wells, who has served as deputy chair of the Assembly Health Committee since 2011, assumes a portfolio that he describes as ‘the most challenging position’ in the executive. When Mr Poots was appointed in 2011, it was announced that he would serve for two years and then be succeeded by Mr Wells. See analysis, page 9 6
November 2014 | Volume 21 | Number 7
Queen’s Nursing Institute invited to join nurse leaders in fight for better care in the community the group. The QNI’s ongoing campaign Right Nurse, Right Skills calls for increased investment in community nursing to improve nursing care in people’s homes. The RCN has also called on the government to boost community nursing numbers by 10,000, warning that the role could ‘face extinction’ by 2025. Dr Oldman said of the invitation: ‘The alliance has done some great work in the acute sector and it is right that they should be turning their attention to community nursing. The QNI has campaigned for the right nurses with the right qualification in the right volume when it comes to caring for people in their own homes.
Use the 6Cs to help patients die well, says cancer specialist NURSES SHOULD use the 6Cs to build relationships and communicate better with dying patients and their families, a leading cancer nurse has said. Shelley Dolan, chief nurse at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, said the 6Cs, courage, compassion, commitment, communication, competence and care, could be used as a template by nurses to help patients die well. Dr Dolan was speaking at a conference in London on improving end of life care. The event focused on implementing the government’s new Priorities of Care for the Dying Person requirements, which replaces the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). The new approach was drawn up on behalf of the Department of Health by the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People in response to Baroness Julia Neuberger’s independent review of the LCP. It has five priorities, including the importance of creating individual care plans, sensitive communication with families and respecting patients’ wishes.
‘But we still have a long way to go before staffing levels are sufficient.’ The NICE guidance is designed to be used by hospital board members, senior managers and nurses to set ward staffing on a shift-by-shift basis. Nurses in charge of wards should raise the alarm when faced with ‘red flag’ events, for example when patients do not receive basic care such as pain relief or help to visit the bathroom, that indicate a need for more skilled nurses or more staff. Safe staffing guidance for maternity settings will be published in January, and accident and emergency settings in May 2015.
Dr Dolan, who is also clinical director of the London Cancer Alliance, said: ‘The 6Cs apply to all nurses. For me, if you get those right in an end of life care setting, you will get it all right. Authentic and genuine communication with patients and relatives is vital. How our citizens die is a measure of the society we live in.’
Nominations for 2015 nurse awards are now welcome DO YOU have a nursing colleague who embodies clinical excellence and innovation? Then why not nominate them for the Nursing Standard 2015 Nurse Awards? Each year RCN Publishing celebrates best nursing practice with awards in areas such as child, mental and public health. The awards are open to nurses, midwives and health visitors registered to practise in the UK. Healthcare assistants, assistant practitioners and nursing students can also enter. Nurses can nominate themselves, their team, a colleague or another team. The deadline for nominations is January 16. Go to www.nurseawards.co.uk NURSING MANAGEMENT
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 08, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
