The need to ensure people on mental health wards receive care that is compassionate, safe and of high quality is paramount. One of the assumptions being that wards need to have the ‘right staff, with the right skills, in the right place at the right time’ (National Quality Board 2013, 2016) to provide compassionate, safe and high-quality care, in other words sufficient numbers of staff with the right skills and values available on mental health wards. There are though very few metrics that are evidence-based, to provide this level of assurance on the numbers of nurses required on mental health wards.
This article examines this new metric alongside the evidence base for workload tools within the context for mental health as we strive to provide greater transparency in both the establishment setting process and reporting of assurance and importantly, to measure and improve care outcomes.
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