04.12.12
Chief nursing officer calls for compassionate care
More emphasis must be placed on providing compassionate care in hospitals, according to the chief nursing officer for England, Jane Cummings.
Speaking at a conference in Manchester today, Cummings is launching ‘Compassion in Practice’, a three year strategy for nursing. The strategy includes new ways of measuring patient feedback, getting trusts to review their culture of care and staffing levels, and explain in public how they impact on standards.
She is set to say: “The context for health care and support is changing. Most significantly, with people living longer, we have a greater number of older patients and people to support, many with multiple and complex needs.
“And while the health, care and support system provides a good – often excellent – service, this is not universal. There is poor care, sometimes very poor. Such poor care is a betrayal of what we all stand for.”
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive & general secretary of the RCN, said: “Our members are working tirelessly and under a great deal of pressure to deliver the best possible care to patients and these values will support that work.
“It needs to be supported by the right level of education and training and nurse leaders at all levels will need the right support and resources to ensure the vision becomes a reality. It is also important to recognise staffing levels have a real impact on patient care, and if staff have unmanageable workloads then the quality of patient care will inevitably suffer.”
Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said that the health service should be “bold” in accepting and delivering the CNO’s challenge and added: “We know that many organisations are doing great work to make sure their care meets the standards patients rightly expect and deserve. But we have not cracked the nut. We continue to hear too many stories of patients being let down at the very moment they need care and compassion.
“We need to reassure the public that we are working hard to build a compassionate culture right throughout the health service. It is absolutely right that we hold a mirror up to the culture and standards of our organisations, and encourage frank and honest feedback from staff and patients and their families and carers.”
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