Category: Nursing Workforce

Robust selection processes are essential to ensure the best and most appropriate candidates for nursing, midwifery and allied health professional (NMAHP) positions are appointed, and subsequently enhance patient care. This article reports on a study that explored interviewers’ and interviewees’ experiences of using values and competency-based interview (VCBI) methods for NMAHPs. Results suggest that this resource could have a positive effect on the quality of the NMAHP workforce, and therefore on patient care. This method of selection could be used in other practice areas in health care, and refinement of the resource should focus on supporting interview panels to develop their VCBI skills and experience.

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Like the idea or not – and professional opinion appears to be divided – nursing associates are coming. It was announced last week that about 1,000 students will be enrolled on courses next year, before starting work at a selection of test sites that are yet to be identified.

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The Nuffield Trust report on reshaping the healthcare workforce was published last month. Its conclusions were widely reported as a recommendation to ‘train up’ nurses as a solution to junior doctor shortages, with support workers, in turn, substituting for registered nurses.

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The coach model is an innovative approach to clinical education in which registered nurses facilitate clinical instruction. The nursing students are assigned with a specific coach throughout the 12-month accelerated baccalaureate nursing curriculum. The purpose of this article is to share our experience using the coach model for students’ clinical education including the benefits, challenges, and outcomes.

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A number of recent reports have highlighted that a large proportion of the practice nurse population is due to retire in the next 5–10 years. Historically, it has been perceived that newly qualified nurses cannot work in primary care without first gaining experience in secondary care. City and Hackney attempted to recruit experienced practice nurses at the beginning of 2015, but was unsuccessful. The advert did however attract interest from nurses who did not have the requisite skills. City and Hackney Gp Confederation, working in conjunction with Health education england north Central and east london (HEE NCEL), the local Community education provider network (CEPN), developed a 12-month training programme for salaried trainee practice nurses to be piloted. The programme started in January 2016 with a cohort of 16 nurses. The initial reaction to the role of the trainee practice nurse has been broadly positive. it is intended that the trainee general practice nurses pilot scheme will become an integral part of the primary care workforce planning processes, which will enable local Gp practices to manage recruitment into practice nurse roles in the future.

Managing workforce planning: Innovation in practice nursing (Follow this link if you have an Athens password). Alternatively contact the UHSM Academy Library for a copy of the article or call 0161 291 5778)

The process of how to best determine nurse staffing has challenged nurse leaders for decade. Research has demonstrated that appropriate allocation of staff favorably impacts patient outcomes, patient safety, financial outcomes, and staff satisfaction (Myner et al., 2012; Shekelle, 2013). Nurse leaders are faced with higher patient acuities and unanticipated events that are not accounted for in traditional staffing models. Dynamic patient events (DPEs) have been defined in this study as rapid, unanticipated clinical situations that result in sudden shifts in nursing workload and the need to carry out rapid staffing adjustments. DPEs require vigilant attention to nurse staffing, and currently are not incorporated into staffing models at most hospitals. Increasingly, hospitals are leveraging new technologies to efficiently and effectively evaluate workload and determine staffing solutions. These new technological advances offer opportunities to measure nursing workload and determine optimal staffing. This study aims seeks to: 1). describe nurses’ perception of DPEs and their impact on workflow and patient care; and 2). examine how DPEs such as code blues, emergency response needs, bedside procedures, monitored patient travel time and requirements for patient safety attendants can be incorporated into staffing plans.

Access the paper by clicking here Using Workforce Management Technology to Explore Dynamic Patient Events, Nurse Staffing and Missed Care.

Nurses are critical to improving patient outcomes but continuing shortages of registered nurses nationally and internationally, coupled with increased demands for care, mean that a different approach to nurse staffing may be necessary. One strategy is to add nursing support workers to hospital staffing. These findings will provide an evidence base for policy makers and hospital executives to plan and implement optimum nurse staffing.

Access the paper by clicking here The Impact of Adding Nursing Support Workers on Patient, Nurse and System Outcomes.

Primary care is at the heart of health care but there are not enough well-trained nurses and health care assistants (HCas) to cope. This study describes how the first ever practice nursing workforce team in England was set up to tackle this in Lambeth, London. Rather than having one nursing lead, the CCG employs a group of nurses who also work day-to-day in clinical practice. A cross-sectional research design was used to collect information about the nurse leads group. Data were collected retrospectively to compare before and after this model was introduced. Information was collected using a survey with 43 practice nurses and 21 HCAs, group discussions and reflections from the nurse lead group and comparison of statistics before and after the nurse lead group was in post. Over a 2-year period, the nurse lead group has increased the number of HCAs in Lambeth, increased the training and supervision available to HCAs and practice nurses, and increased satisfaction with training and support. Before the team was in place there was no register of nurse mentors. Now there is a register with 38 trained mentors. Previously, only one practice took student nurse placements, now four do. Ten clinical supervision groups run at different times during the week, with 80 nurses taking part (80%). The number of HCAs has increased by 25%. All HCAs have attended an upskilling course and seven out of ten attend regular supervision. Other areas could also have a team of nurse leads rather than relying on one person. Making sure that nurse leads are part of the clinical workforce helps to promote empathy and credibility. Having a team helps to share the workload and means that nurses can divide their time between clinical practice and workforce development activities.

Using a nurse leads team to spearhead workforce change. (Practice Nursing, 2016 27(4)) (Follow this link if you have an Athens password). Alternatively contact the UHSM Academy Library for a copy of the article or call 0161 291 5778)

This paper seeks to identify gaps within nursing collective agreements for opportunities to implement practices to sustain the nursing workforce.

Managing and sustaining an ageing nursing workforce: identifying opportunities and best practices within collective agreements in Canada (Follow this link if you have an Athens password). Alternatively contact the UHSM Academy Library for a copy of the article or call 0161 291 5778)