EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief Ian Peate Editor/Associate Publisher Julie Smith [email protected] Chief Subeditor Sarah Kahn [email protected] Subeditors Daniel Davies [email protected] Vicqui Stuart-Jones [email protected] Commissioning Editor Sue Woodward Group Classified Director Rachel McElhinney [email protected] Circulation Director Sally Boettcher [email protected] Associate Publisher Andrew Iafrati [email protected] MedEd Manager Tracy Cowan [email protected] Classified Sales Executive Harry Nolan Production Manager Jon Redmayne Production Assistant Larry Oakes Editorial Make-up Kyri Apostolou Publishing Director Anthony Kerr Managing Director Jon Benson Chief Executive Officer Ben Allen UK PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Quarterly Direct Debit Annual Direct Debit Annual Credit Card 2yr Annual Credit Card 3yr Annual Credit Card
£43 £169 £178 £303 £427
Subscribe online: www.magsubscriptions.com, Subscribe by phone: +44 (0) 1722 716997 Contact [email protected] for institutional pricing MA Healthcare Ltd is part of the Mark Allen Group
www.markallengroup.com The British Journal of Nursing is published by MA Healthcare Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB Tel: 020 7738 5454 Editorial: 020 7501 6716 Sales: 020 7501 6726 Email: [email protected] Websites: www.britishjournalofnursing.com
© MA Healthcare Ltd, 2015. All rights reserved. No part of the British Journal of Nursing may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publishing Director. The British Journal of Nursing is a double-blind, peerreviewed journal. It is indexed on the main databases, including the International Nursing Index, Medline and the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the editor or the British Journal of Nursing. Advertisements in the journal do not imply endorsement of the products or services advertised. ISSN 0966 – 0461 Print: Pensord Press Ltd, Blackwood, NP12 2YA Distribution: Comag Distribution, West Drayton, UB7 7QE Cover picture: iStockphoto.com The paper used within this publication has been sourced from Chain-of-Custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.
British Journal of Nursing, 2015, Vol 24, No 7
Sickness absence: a concern for all of us
T
he NHS is one of the world’s largest employers and its workforce accounts for a significant proportion of the UK working population. There are over 400 000 nurses working in the NHS and they are being stretched to breaking point as they are required to work more demanding and longer shifts against a backdrop of understaffing and the increasing complexity of illnesses. One key issue for employers is absence management; it is also an important issue for employees. There is an increasing link between attendance and the health and wellbeing of staff. Those employees who are engaged in their work feel that they are fairly recompensed, have a positive and good place in which to work and, most importantly, they consider they have some influence and control over their job and will be much less inclined to take time off from their work. Nurses are no exception. Boorman (2009) acknowledged that important steps have already been made in raising awareness of the importance of staff health and wellbeing to high-quality patient care. Employers have a ‘duty of care’ that requires them to protect their employees from threats to their health and safety. Good practice would suggest that employers should also recognise the value of good morale and motivation at work by ensuring that the people they employ have a safe and positive environment in which to work. Ensuring this could be the cornerstone for managing and controlling staff absence. Nurses are under increasing pressure to perform at work as they are engaged in more complex and more stressful work. This can, in itself, create a situation where short-term absences surface as a result of increasingly stressful working conditions. This then produces a knock-on effect as increased pressure is placed on nurses who have to cover the workload of those colleagues who are absent—the vicious circle. Incomes Data Services (2014) reported that one of the reasons for nurses working more than their contracted hours was insufficient sickness cover. This, plus the strain being put on the health service— resources frozen, job cuts and increased patient numbers—means that nurses are at breaking point. In Scotland, Wales and England, the number of nurses who are taking time off as a result of stress has risen significantly as the NHS continues to struggle with rising demands for care. Data obtained through a freedom of information request made by The Observer showed that in London, 1497 nurses at 31 NHS trusts took time off that was related to stress during 2014, an increase of 27% on the 1179 who did so in 2012. This would suggest that 1 in every 29 nurses were off ill with stress.The nearly 1500 nurses took on average 38 days off for stress (Kirk, 2015). Stress-related leave
means that some of these nurses may have had anxiety or depression and stress (NHS Employers, 2014a). A literature review undertaken by Health Education England (HEE) (2014) suggested that around 10% of the nursing workforce intends to leave, which is likely to result in actual turnover if mitigating strategies are not put in place. HEE (2014) noted that turnover rates are higher for those nurses who are newly qualified, those within specific nursing practices and those approaching retirement. In Wales, the seven health boards have seen the number of nurses taking time off with stress rise 17% from 2188 in 2012 to 2563 in 2014. Those nurses who became so stressed they could no longer work were off sick for an average of 51 days. Stress-related sick days among nurses in Scotland have also risen by 34% from 116 735 in 2012 to 156 880 in 2014. NHS Employers (2014b) has published new guidance for NHS managers in response to excessive sickness absence, often as a result of stress, and the extortionate costs the NHS has to endure due to lost productivity along with the cost of replacing stressed staff. A number of healthcare providers struggle to fill nursing vacancies and need to develop robust nurse retention strategies to prevent further nurses leaving. Van den Heede et al (2013) suggest that investing in improved nursing work environments is a key strategy to retain nurses. If this approach is adopted, it is less expensive to retain the nurses than to have to recruit, train and place new ones. This is not the first time a call for investment in NHS staff has been made, yet it seems that these messages continue to go unheeded. Staff experience sickness absence and at the same time nurses are haemorrhaging out of the service. The evidence is clear and, if acted on, has the potential to turn this BJN vicious circle into a virtuous one. Boorman S (2009) NHS Health and Wellbeing. Final Report. http://tinyurl. com/oh9txy6 (accessed 25 March 2015) Health Education England (2014) Growing Nursing Numbers. http://tinyurl. com/ndgurev (accessed 25 March 2015) Incomes Data Services (2014) NHS Staff Survey on Pay and Conditions. A Research Report for the Joint Staff-side NHS Trade Unions Part 1 http:// tinyurl.com/oowopsp (accessed 25 March 2015) Kirk A (2015) Nurses at breaking point as number off work with stress soars. The Observer, 17 January 2015 NHS Employers (2014a) Guidance on Prevention and Management of Stress at Work http://tinyurl.com/l4zcnko (accessed 25 March 2015) NHS Employers (2014b) Everything You Need to Know About Sickness Absence http://tinyurl.com/nwp422u (accessed 25 March 2015) Van den Heede K, Florquin M, Ian Peate Bruyneel L et al (2013) Effective Editor in Chief strategies for nurse retention in acute British Journal of hospitals: a mixed method study. Int J Nursing Nurs Stud 50(2):185-94
361
British Journal of Nursing. Downloaded from magonlinelibrary.com by 130.194.020.173 on November 13, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. . All rights reserved.
Editor in Chief Ian Peate Editor/Associate Publisher Julie Smith [email protected] Chief Subeditor Sarah Kahn [email protected] Subeditors Daniel Davies [email protected] Vicqui Stuart-Jones [email protected] Commissioning Editor Sue Woodward Group Classified Director Rachel McElhinney [email protected] Circulation Director Sally Boettcher [email protected] Associate Publisher Andrew Iafrati [email protected] MedEd Manager Tracy Cowan [email protected] Classified Sales Executive Harry Nolan Production Manager Jon Redmayne Production Assistant Larry Oakes Editorial Make-up Kyri Apostolou Publishing Director Anthony Kerr Managing Director Jon Benson Chief Executive Officer Ben Allen UK PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Quarterly Direct Debit Annual Direct Debit Annual Credit Card 2yr Annual Credit Card 3yr Annual Credit Card
£43 £169 £178 £303 £427
Subscribe online: www.magsubscriptions.com, Subscribe by phone: +44 (0) 1722 716997 Contact [email protected] for institutional pricing MA Healthcare Ltd is part of the Mark Allen Group
www.markallengroup.com The British Journal of Nursing is published by MA Healthcare Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB Tel: 020 7738 5454 Editorial: 020 7501 6716 Sales: 020 7501 6726 Email: [email protected] Websites: www.britishjournalofnursing.com
© MA Healthcare Ltd, 2015. All rights reserved. No part of the British Journal of Nursing may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publishing Director. The British Journal of Nursing is a double-blind, peerreviewed journal. It is indexed on the main databases, including the International Nursing Index, Medline and the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the editor or the British Journal of Nursing. Advertisements in the journal do not imply endorsement of the products or services advertised. ISSN 0966 – 0461 Print: Pensord Press Ltd, Blackwood, NP12 2YA Distribution: Comag Distribution, West Drayton, UB7 7QE Cover picture: iStockphoto.com The paper used within this publication has been sourced from Chain-of-Custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.
British Journal of Nursing, 2015, Vol 24, No 7
Sickness absence: a concern for all of us
T
he NHS is one of the world’s largest employers and its workforce accounts for a significant proportion of the UK working population. There are over 400 000 nurses working in the NHS and they are being stretched to breaking point as they are required to work more demanding and longer shifts against a backdrop of understaffing and the increasing complexity of illnesses. One key issue for employers is absence management; it is also an important issue for employees. There is an increasing link between attendance and the health and wellbeing of staff. Those employees who are engaged in their work feel that they are fairly recompensed, have a positive and good place in which to work and, most importantly, they consider they have some influence and control over their job and will be much less inclined to take time off from their work. Nurses are no exception. Boorman (2009) acknowledged that important steps have already been made in raising awareness of the importance of staff health and wellbeing to high-quality patient care. Employers have a ‘duty of care’ that requires them to protect their employees from threats to their health and safety. Good practice would suggest that employers should also recognise the value of good morale and motivation at work by ensuring that the people they employ have a safe and positive environment in which to work. Ensuring this could be the cornerstone for managing and controlling staff absence. Nurses are under increasing pressure to perform at work as they are engaged in more complex and more stressful work. This can, in itself, create a situation where short-term absences surface as a result of increasingly stressful working conditions. This then produces a knock-on effect as increased pressure is placed on nurses who have to cover the workload of those colleagues who are absent—the vicious circle. Incomes Data Services (2014) reported that one of the reasons for nurses working more than their contracted hours was insufficient sickness cover. This, plus the strain being put on the health service— resources frozen, job cuts and increased patient numbers—means that nurses are at breaking point. In Scotland, Wales and England, the number of nurses who are taking time off as a result of stress has risen significantly as the NHS continues to struggle with rising demands for care. Data obtained through a freedom of information request made by The Observer showed that in London, 1497 nurses at 31 NHS trusts took time off that was related to stress during 2014, an increase of 27% on the 1179 who did so in 2012. This would suggest that 1 in every 29 nurses were off ill with stress.The nearly 1500 nurses took on average 38 days off for stress (Kirk, 2015). Stress-related leave
means that some of these nurses may have had anxiety or depression and stress (NHS Employers, 2014a). A literature review undertaken by Health Education England (HEE) (2014) suggested that around 10% of the nursing workforce intends to leave, which is likely to result in actual turnover if mitigating strategies are not put in place. HEE (2014) noted that turnover rates are higher for those nurses who are newly qualified, those within specific nursing practices and those approaching retirement. In Wales, the seven health boards have seen the number of nurses taking time off with stress rise 17% from 2188 in 2012 to 2563 in 2014. Those nurses who became so stressed they could no longer work were off sick for an average of 51 days. Stress-related sick days among nurses in Scotland have also risen by 34% from 116 735 in 2012 to 156 880 in 2014. NHS Employers (2014b) has published new guidance for NHS managers in response to excessive sickness absence, often as a result of stress, and the extortionate costs the NHS has to endure due to lost productivity along with the cost of replacing stressed staff. A number of healthcare providers struggle to fill nursing vacancies and need to develop robust nurse retention strategies to prevent further nurses leaving. Van den Heede et al (2013) suggest that investing in improved nursing work environments is a key strategy to retain nurses. If this approach is adopted, it is less expensive to retain the nurses than to have to recruit, train and place new ones. This is not the first time a call for investment in NHS staff has been made, yet it seems that these messages continue to go unheeded. Staff experience sickness absence and at the same time nurses are haemorrhaging out of the service. The evidence is clear and, if acted on, has the potential to turn this BJN vicious circle into a virtuous one. Boorman S (2009) NHS Health and Wellbeing. Final Report. http://tinyurl. com/oh9txy6 (accessed 25 March 2015) Health Education England (2014) Growing Nursing Numbers. http://tinyurl. com/ndgurev (accessed 25 March 2015) Incomes Data Services (2014) NHS Staff Survey on Pay and Conditions. A Research Report for the Joint Staff-side NHS Trade Unions Part 1 http:// tinyurl.com/oowopsp (accessed 25 March 2015) Kirk A (2015) Nurses at breaking point as number off work with stress soars. The Observer, 17 January 2015 NHS Employers (2014a) Guidance on Prevention and Management of Stress at Work http://tinyurl.com/l4zcnko (accessed 25 March 2015) NHS Employers (2014b) Everything You Need to Know About Sickness Absence http://tinyurl.com/nwp422u (accessed 25 March 2015) Van den Heede K, Florquin M, Ian Peate Bruyneel L et al (2013) Effective Editor in Chief strategies for nurse retention in acute British Journal of hospitals: a mixed method study. Int J Nursing Nurs Stud 50(2):185-94
361
British Journal of Nursing. Downloaded from magonlinelibrary.com by 130.194.020.173 on November 13, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. . All rights reserved.
