09.04.14
Staffing on wards
Source: Dr Alison Franks, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust
Thank you for this article! I would just like to add a really important extra point that MUST be considered as well as absolute numbers of staff on wards, and that is the MIX of staff. I don’t just mean mix by grade, but also the use of agency staff.
All too often I see these VERY expensive ‘extra’ nurses hanging around doing very little and/ or just not having the skills to be helpful, such that the regular staff often say that they’d rather be without them as watching them ADDS work not ease it.
Re: Trusts must publish ‘Hard Truths’ staffing data on wards