NEWS
KNIGHTED NURSE IS CALL TO INCREASE STAFF ENGAGEMENT AS A REMOVED FROM THE WAY OF IMPROVING SATISFACTION AND CARE NURSING REGISTER A nurse-led initiative to improve The feedback led to nurses’ paperwork asthma care for children has ‘motivated’ staff by emphasising the value of their feedback in improving practices, according to a charity report. The Point of Care Foundation last week called on healthcare organisations to increase staff engagement in developing strategies to improve care as this will boost staff satisfaction. The way staff feel about their work has a direct impact on patient care, its report says. The foundation advises organisations to give staff responsibility and authority to solve the problems that they think affect patient care, citing how this approach at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust led to staff feeling ‘motivated and enthusiastic’ because they had made a difference. Nurses on the trust’s paediatric assessment unit began conducting staff engagement sessions and questionnaires last year to seek ideas on improving asthma care for children. They also introduced a graffiti board, where staff could write suggestions for improvements.
for assessing patients being simplified and to the development of a four-part pack, containing a personal asthma plan, to be given to children when discharged. Paediatric assessment unit senior sister Emma Hughes said the project increased nursing staff’s passion for their work and resulted in them wanting to make changes in other areas of the unit. King’s College London’s National Nursing Research Unit director Jill Maben, an adviser on the Point of Care report, said: ‘Nurses know what needs to be done and empowering them to make changes can really be satisfying.’ CORBIS
A nurse knighted for his services to health care who failed to maintain professional boundaries with a bereaved patient he was counselling has been removed from the nursing register for misconduct. Sir George Castledine, a former assistant dean in Birmingham City University’s nursing faculty, began a relationship with the 83-year-old widow for financial and sexual gain, the Nursing and Midwifery Council conduct panel heard. He admitted seven of the charges, including that he failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with the patient by visiting her home at night, accepting aftershave as a gift and telling her that he loved her. However, he denied his conduct was sexually or financially motivated. The panel found proved 20 of the 22 charges against him. It concluded that Sir George had failed to demonstrate ‘remorse and a realisation that the conduct was dishonest’. Sir George, 67, who was unavailable for comment, cannot apply to return to the register for five years.
Asthma care improved when staff were empowered
One third of staff feel bullied at largest NHS organisation The RCN has condemned the bullying experienced by overstretched nurses at the UK’s largest NHS organisation. Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said last week that morale at the Barts Health NHS Trust in east London plummeted following a review of nursing staff that led to job losses and downgrading of posts. The trust, which runs three acute hospitals and community services, had insufficient nurses and depended on agency staff on many wards, according to a CQC quality report. ‘Too many members of staff at all levels and across all sites came to us to express their concerns about being bullied,’ the CQC stated.
In the most recent NHS Staff Survey, a third of staff at Barts Health said they had experienced bullying or harassment from colleagues, compared with the NHS acute trust average of
‘WE ARE REAFFIRMING VERY STRONGLY THAT BULLYING HAS NO PLACE AT BARTS’ 24 per cent. The RCN said 200 posts were lost before Christmas. RCN London officer Jayne Tierney said that the management were aware of bullying before a number of trusts merged to create Barts Health in 2012. ‘It is difficult to see what will be achieved by a CQC report that repeats
those concerns but makes no suggestions for remedying them,’ she said. ‘We are approached regularly by members who feel bullied at Barts Health, but who refuse to speak up because they fear a negative reaction from their managers. The pay cuts and job losses last year have further increased the pressures on staff. Barts need a serious look at their culture, and they need to take action to turn it around.’ Barts Health is recruiting permanent nurses, who should be in place by the end of March. A spokesperson said nurse numbers are in line with recognised benchmarks: ‘We are reaffirming very strongly that bullying has no place at Barts Health.’
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KNIGHTED NURSE IS CALL TO INCREASE STAFF ENGAGEMENT AS A REMOVED FROM THE WAY OF IMPROVING SATISFACTION AND CARE NURSING REGISTER A nurse-led initiative to improve The feedback led to nurses’ paperwork asthma care for children has ‘motivated’ staff by emphasising the value of their feedback in improving practices, according to a charity report. The Point of Care Foundation last week called on healthcare organisations to increase staff engagement in developing strategies to improve care as this will boost staff satisfaction. The way staff feel about their work has a direct impact on patient care, its report says. The foundation advises organisations to give staff responsibility and authority to solve the problems that they think affect patient care, citing how this approach at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust led to staff feeling ‘motivated and enthusiastic’ because they had made a difference. Nurses on the trust’s paediatric assessment unit began conducting staff engagement sessions and questionnaires last year to seek ideas on improving asthma care for children. They also introduced a graffiti board, where staff could write suggestions for improvements.
for assessing patients being simplified and to the development of a four-part pack, containing a personal asthma plan, to be given to children when discharged. Paediatric assessment unit senior sister Emma Hughes said the project increased nursing staff’s passion for their work and resulted in them wanting to make changes in other areas of the unit. King’s College London’s National Nursing Research Unit director Jill Maben, an adviser on the Point of Care report, said: ‘Nurses know what needs to be done and empowering them to make changes can really be satisfying.’ CORBIS
A nurse knighted for his services to health care who failed to maintain professional boundaries with a bereaved patient he was counselling has been removed from the nursing register for misconduct. Sir George Castledine, a former assistant dean in Birmingham City University’s nursing faculty, began a relationship with the 83-year-old widow for financial and sexual gain, the Nursing and Midwifery Council conduct panel heard. He admitted seven of the charges, including that he failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with the patient by visiting her home at night, accepting aftershave as a gift and telling her that he loved her. However, he denied his conduct was sexually or financially motivated. The panel found proved 20 of the 22 charges against him. It concluded that Sir George had failed to demonstrate ‘remorse and a realisation that the conduct was dishonest’. Sir George, 67, who was unavailable for comment, cannot apply to return to the register for five years.
Asthma care improved when staff were empowered
One third of staff feel bullied at largest NHS organisation The RCN has condemned the bullying experienced by overstretched nurses at the UK’s largest NHS organisation. Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said last week that morale at the Barts Health NHS Trust in east London plummeted following a review of nursing staff that led to job losses and downgrading of posts. The trust, which runs three acute hospitals and community services, had insufficient nurses and depended on agency staff on many wards, according to a CQC quality report. ‘Too many members of staff at all levels and across all sites came to us to express their concerns about being bullied,’ the CQC stated.
In the most recent NHS Staff Survey, a third of staff at Barts Health said they had experienced bullying or harassment from colleagues, compared with the NHS acute trust average of
‘WE ARE REAFFIRMING VERY STRONGLY THAT BULLYING HAS NO PLACE AT BARTS’ 24 per cent. The RCN said 200 posts were lost before Christmas. RCN London officer Jayne Tierney said that the management were aware of bullying before a number of trusts merged to create Barts Health in 2012. ‘It is difficult to see what will be achieved by a CQC report that repeats
those concerns but makes no suggestions for remedying them,’ she said. ‘We are approached regularly by members who feel bullied at Barts Health, but who refuse to speak up because they fear a negative reaction from their managers. The pay cuts and job losses last year have further increased the pressures on staff. Barts need a serious look at their culture, and they need to take action to turn it around.’ Barts Health is recruiting permanent nurses, who should be in place by the end of March. A spokesperson said nurse numbers are in line with recognised benchmarks: ‘We are reaffirming very strongly that bullying has no place at Barts Health.’
NURSING STANDARD january 22 :: vol 28 no 21 :: 2014 11 Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 15, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
