Letters
We welcome all readers’ letters, but reserve the right to edit them or withhold names and addresses. Please email: [email protected]
Please keep letters to a maximum of 150 words, and include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number
Cutbacks and increased pressures have drained the fun from nursing I am surprised by the survey of 1,600 nurses revealing that only one in seven were happy with their jobs, and more than half said they had considered leaving the UK to work abroad (News February 12). I would have thought that fewer than one in seven were happy with their jobs. What is there to be joyful about? All the fun of nursing seems to have evaporated. Our pay and conditions have taken knock after knock and the good name of nursing has been tarnished with scandals such as Mid Staffs and Winterbourne. The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s plan to raise the annual registration fee to £120 has been the final straw, especially given that the increase is said to be necessary to cover the rising cost of fitness to practise referrals. The NHS is being starved of cash, more cuts are in the pipeline and the pressures on health service staff – and frontline nurses in particular – are relentless. Working in today’s NHS is like being in a pressure cooker. Waiting lists are lengthening due to our ageing population and the growing number of people with long-term conditions. The lists are also growing because of NHS rationing of common procedures such as cataract removal and hip and knee replacements. Something has to give and it’s my patience that is exhausted. It’s about time I looked at the options of nursing abroad. Australia, anyone? Jayne Thomas, by email
SCRAMBLE FOR FOUNDATION TRUST STATUS HITS PSYCHOLOGY SERVICE In its fourth attempt to gain foundation trust status, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust plans to downgrade its psychology service and community mental health teams. 34 february 19 :: vol 28 no 25 :: 2014
The new model involves a system of integrated units where nurses, doctors, psychologists and support staff work together to provide an agreed care plan. This is a positive model but in practice it means that experienced nursing and psychology staff will be replaced by practitioners with fewer skills and less experience. The equivalent of 468 full-time jobs in the trust could go by May. The number of band six nurses in health teams will fall from 108 to 61, with the number of band five staff rising from 24 to 61. In the psychology team, band six and seven staff with basic training will rise to almost 30, with more senior staff, including consultants, reduced from 25 to nine. The trust has failed to consult the public on these frontline staff changes. Given the de-skilling and downgrading, and reduction in the range and quality of treatments offered, these proposals should have been put out to consultation.
A recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission highlighted the trust’s committed workforce as one of its strengths. It identified areas of good practice, notably the number of dedicated and competent staff. Why is the trust squandering its key assets for the sake of foundation trust status? Name and address supplied
WE TRUST OUR GPs AND THE NHS MORE THAN PRIVATE COMPANIES Most of us would prefer that the details of our past and present mental and physical health are held securely by our GP surgeries (Letters January 22, February 5 and 12) and not available or for sale to private health providers, insurance companies and potential employers. If private health and life insurance companies gain access to this information, won’t they start charging higher premiums if they know what once took us to see the doctor?
NURSING STANDARD
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It all comes down to trust. We generally trust our GPs and the NHS more than we trust private companies, banks, the security services or even the government. None of the arguments in favour of the care.data database are convincing unless we can be sure that the rules on anonymising these records hold firm and the identity of patients remains concealed. It was not long ago that HM Revenue & Customs mislaid two discs sent through the post that contained the names, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank account details of 25 million people. What is to stop that sort of mismanagement from happening again? Susan Brown, by email
AVOID CONTACT WITH FLOODWATER AND TAKE SENSIBLE PRECAUTIONS My heart bleeds for the victims of the recent flooding and the hardship and losses they are experiencing. It is a tragedy that so much of the UK has been affected, with many areas in the south east of England experiencing flooding for the first time. Many residents in these communities do not know how to cope with the damage and the clearing up. As a public health nurse, I am concerned that dirty floodwater will spread gastrointestinal disease. There should be more warnings about health prevention measures that the victims of the flooding and rescuers can follow. It is important to undertake sensible precautions such as regular handwashing, dressing open wounds and abrasions, and only drinking clean water. Avoid all contact with floodwater wherever possible. Henry Campbell, by email
BLACK AND MINORITY ETHNIC NURSES NEED HELP IN CAREER PROGRESSION Urgent action is required to tackle the lack of career opportunities in the NHS for black and minority ethnic nurses (Editorial and News January 29).
NURSING STANDARD
But we need to use an approach that tackles some of the fundamental reasons for the discrimination. A number of factors contribute to discrimination, including unconscious bias. This may be based on a low tolerance of cultural variations in the way that some disadvantaged black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses approach care and the way in which they communicate. Where nursing in general, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council in particular, went wrong was in failing to support recruits from abroad with a range of adaptation programmes to help them to deliver care in unfamiliar cultural settings. We need to put this right, not only to help BME nurses to progress in their careers without harassment and unfair discrimination, but also to ensure the best quality of care for all patients. Ami David, by email
ARE YOU AN ADMIRER OR CRITIC OF BRIGHT RED PAINTED FINGERNAILS? Senior lecturer Mark Wheatley is puzzled by the photograph of a nurse with bright red painted fingernails that accompanied Dinah Gould’s article on hand hygiene (Student life January 29 and Letters February 12). He says such images are confusing and do not help to promote the message of appropriate hand hygiene. But the photograph of the nurse with painted fingernails holding a patient’s hand was surely used to illustrate poor practice. As the article makes clear, 60 per cent of respondents to an online survey had noticed nurses wearing nail polish or nail extensions. If staff are failing to say anything to colleagues with painted nails, what is happening about other serious departures from good practice? Are staff reporting inadequate cleaning of the patient environment, not changing personal protective clothing between patients and the unsafe handling of sharps? We need another survey. Hannah Braithwaite, by email
TWEETS OF THE WEEK #WeNurses Remember, leaders are not always to be found at the top of the ‘ladder’ @TildaMc
@pauljebb1 talks about hearing the patients voice @BlackpoolHosp, stop talking about ‘front line’ we are delivering care, not at war @SamSherrington
Virtual dementia training should be made compulsory for all staff @emmaatracey
Yes, handover is essential, but we should have a model to structure the approach and give a framework for standards #NursingJC @Nurse_Tucker
Sometimes info at handover requires discussion and clarification. Taped handovers stop that from happening :-( @Jstutelybrown
Shift handovers ideal opportunity to involve multidisciplinary team. Needs a joined up approach @smurphy_nurse
I’m not here for the money. I’m “here for that reward that comes with nursing” #BedpansAndBandages @levylass
There’s no biscuits or chocolate in the ward staff room...signs of a bad shift #nursing @Student_Nurse1
Follow Nursing Standard @NScomment and join the #NScomment chat on Thursdays at 12.30pm february 19 :: vol 28 no 25 :: 2014 35
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Aug 29, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
We welcome all readers’ letters, but reserve the right to edit them or withhold names and addresses. Please email: [email protected]
Please keep letters to a maximum of 150 words, and include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number
Cutbacks and increased pressures have drained the fun from nursing I am surprised by the survey of 1,600 nurses revealing that only one in seven were happy with their jobs, and more than half said they had considered leaving the UK to work abroad (News February 12). I would have thought that fewer than one in seven were happy with their jobs. What is there to be joyful about? All the fun of nursing seems to have evaporated. Our pay and conditions have taken knock after knock and the good name of nursing has been tarnished with scandals such as Mid Staffs and Winterbourne. The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s plan to raise the annual registration fee to £120 has been the final straw, especially given that the increase is said to be necessary to cover the rising cost of fitness to practise referrals. The NHS is being starved of cash, more cuts are in the pipeline and the pressures on health service staff – and frontline nurses in particular – are relentless. Working in today’s NHS is like being in a pressure cooker. Waiting lists are lengthening due to our ageing population and the growing number of people with long-term conditions. The lists are also growing because of NHS rationing of common procedures such as cataract removal and hip and knee replacements. Something has to give and it’s my patience that is exhausted. It’s about time I looked at the options of nursing abroad. Australia, anyone? Jayne Thomas, by email
SCRAMBLE FOR FOUNDATION TRUST STATUS HITS PSYCHOLOGY SERVICE In its fourth attempt to gain foundation trust status, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust plans to downgrade its psychology service and community mental health teams. 34 february 19 :: vol 28 no 25 :: 2014
The new model involves a system of integrated units where nurses, doctors, psychologists and support staff work together to provide an agreed care plan. This is a positive model but in practice it means that experienced nursing and psychology staff will be replaced by practitioners with fewer skills and less experience. The equivalent of 468 full-time jobs in the trust could go by May. The number of band six nurses in health teams will fall from 108 to 61, with the number of band five staff rising from 24 to 61. In the psychology team, band six and seven staff with basic training will rise to almost 30, with more senior staff, including consultants, reduced from 25 to nine. The trust has failed to consult the public on these frontline staff changes. Given the de-skilling and downgrading, and reduction in the range and quality of treatments offered, these proposals should have been put out to consultation.
A recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission highlighted the trust’s committed workforce as one of its strengths. It identified areas of good practice, notably the number of dedicated and competent staff. Why is the trust squandering its key assets for the sake of foundation trust status? Name and address supplied
WE TRUST OUR GPs AND THE NHS MORE THAN PRIVATE COMPANIES Most of us would prefer that the details of our past and present mental and physical health are held securely by our GP surgeries (Letters January 22, February 5 and 12) and not available or for sale to private health providers, insurance companies and potential employers. If private health and life insurance companies gain access to this information, won’t they start charging higher premiums if they know what once took us to see the doctor?
NURSING STANDARD
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Aug 29, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
It all comes down to trust. We generally trust our GPs and the NHS more than we trust private companies, banks, the security services or even the government. None of the arguments in favour of the care.data database are convincing unless we can be sure that the rules on anonymising these records hold firm and the identity of patients remains concealed. It was not long ago that HM Revenue & Customs mislaid two discs sent through the post that contained the names, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and bank account details of 25 million people. What is to stop that sort of mismanagement from happening again? Susan Brown, by email
AVOID CONTACT WITH FLOODWATER AND TAKE SENSIBLE PRECAUTIONS My heart bleeds for the victims of the recent flooding and the hardship and losses they are experiencing. It is a tragedy that so much of the UK has been affected, with many areas in the south east of England experiencing flooding for the first time. Many residents in these communities do not know how to cope with the damage and the clearing up. As a public health nurse, I am concerned that dirty floodwater will spread gastrointestinal disease. There should be more warnings about health prevention measures that the victims of the flooding and rescuers can follow. It is important to undertake sensible precautions such as regular handwashing, dressing open wounds and abrasions, and only drinking clean water. Avoid all contact with floodwater wherever possible. Henry Campbell, by email
BLACK AND MINORITY ETHNIC NURSES NEED HELP IN CAREER PROGRESSION Urgent action is required to tackle the lack of career opportunities in the NHS for black and minority ethnic nurses (Editorial and News January 29).
NURSING STANDARD
But we need to use an approach that tackles some of the fundamental reasons for the discrimination. A number of factors contribute to discrimination, including unconscious bias. This may be based on a low tolerance of cultural variations in the way that some disadvantaged black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses approach care and the way in which they communicate. Where nursing in general, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council in particular, went wrong was in failing to support recruits from abroad with a range of adaptation programmes to help them to deliver care in unfamiliar cultural settings. We need to put this right, not only to help BME nurses to progress in their careers without harassment and unfair discrimination, but also to ensure the best quality of care for all patients. Ami David, by email
ARE YOU AN ADMIRER OR CRITIC OF BRIGHT RED PAINTED FINGERNAILS? Senior lecturer Mark Wheatley is puzzled by the photograph of a nurse with bright red painted fingernails that accompanied Dinah Gould’s article on hand hygiene (Student life January 29 and Letters February 12). He says such images are confusing and do not help to promote the message of appropriate hand hygiene. But the photograph of the nurse with painted fingernails holding a patient’s hand was surely used to illustrate poor practice. As the article makes clear, 60 per cent of respondents to an online survey had noticed nurses wearing nail polish or nail extensions. If staff are failing to say anything to colleagues with painted nails, what is happening about other serious departures from good practice? Are staff reporting inadequate cleaning of the patient environment, not changing personal protective clothing between patients and the unsafe handling of sharps? We need another survey. Hannah Braithwaite, by email
TWEETS OF THE WEEK #WeNurses Remember, leaders are not always to be found at the top of the ‘ladder’ @TildaMc
@pauljebb1 talks about hearing the patients voice @BlackpoolHosp, stop talking about ‘front line’ we are delivering care, not at war @SamSherrington
Virtual dementia training should be made compulsory for all staff @emmaatracey
Yes, handover is essential, but we should have a model to structure the approach and give a framework for standards #NursingJC @Nurse_Tucker
Sometimes info at handover requires discussion and clarification. Taped handovers stop that from happening :-( @Jstutelybrown
Shift handovers ideal opportunity to involve multidisciplinary team. Needs a joined up approach @smurphy_nurse
I’m not here for the money. I’m “here for that reward that comes with nursing” #BedpansAndBandages @levylass
There’s no biscuits or chocolate in the ward staff room...signs of a bad shift #nursing @Student_Nurse1
Follow Nursing Standard @NScomment and join the #NScomment chat on Thursdays at 12.30pm february 19 :: vol 28 no 25 :: 2014 35
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Aug 29, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
