Staff focus updates - 11 October 2012

New policy, guidance and initiatives from across the UK which focus on staff issues and professional development. For more information about this theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: staff focus.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges: Remediation Working Group report. The report looks at how medical Royal Colleges and Faculties might provide specialist input into remediation and is a response to the Department of Health’s 2011 recommendations that medical royal colleges should produce guidance and also provide assessment and specialist input into remediation programmes.

Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE): The Performance Review 2012/13. Each year the CHRE carries out a performance review of the health and care professional regulators and reports their findings to Parliament, to health ministers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and to the public. In order for the CHRE to challenge and confirm the regulators’ evidence about their performance, they would like to hear about the experiences people have had with the regulators since January 2012. Details are given about how this should be presented. All responses must be received by 1 December 2012.

DH: HR guidance for transition to the new health and care system. This sets out the principles underpinning transitional arrangements and provides guidance to support NHS leaders in developing local arrangements, providing clarity on how to manage the impact of transition on employees.

DH: Workplace offers a major opportunity to drive health improvement. Dame Carol Black, Chair of the Public Health Responsibility Deal Health at Work Network talks about the importance of workplace health and well-being and what’s being done to take up the challenge of health improvement across the construction and civil engineering industry in this video blog.

DH: Summary of local education and training board authorisation process. This is a summary of the process to establish local education and training boards (LETBs) as committees of Health Education England (HEE). It sets out the key steps necessary to prepare and complete the authorisation process to set up LETB governing bodies by the end of March 2013.

DH: Director of public health role outlined. Key information about the role of the director of public health in the new public health system has been published by the Department of Health. The information describes both the statutory and non-statutory elements of the role and is supported by a factsheet on the new public health role of local authorities, outlining the Department of Health’s vision for public health in local government and highlighting how the director of public health will lead and champion health improvement across the local authority.

General Medical Council (GMC): GMC to recommend that revalidation should begin. The GMC has confirmed that it will recommend to the Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, that revalidation for doctors should begin in December this year. 

Guardian: Get ready for work: what woman who needs constant care was told. The Guardian article carries an interview with RCN Deputy President Cecilia Anim, speaking in a personal capacity, looking at the work capability assessment that her daughter took to assess her fitness for work. The online piece includes a video interview with Cecilia.

Guardian: Five minutes with a director of nursing. Lynne Wigens is the new director of nursing and quality, infection prevention and control for the Ipswich hospital NHS trust. She explains how she will be approaching the role.

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC): New consultation on standards for prescribing. These new standards have been developed for supplementary and independent prescribing in the light of amendments to the legislation by the Department of Health which allows appropriately trained  chiropodists / podiatrists and physiotherapists to act as independent prescribers if they are annotated on the Register as independent prescribers. The consultation closes on 4 January 2013.

HQIP: NJR and the Royal College of Surgeons launch Fellowship opportunities. The National Joint Registry (NJR) is pleased to announce two Fellowship opportunities in partnership with the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS). Sponsored for a minimum of 12 months, these fellowships are for orthopaedic trainees who wish to contribute to the analysis of data from the registry and undertake a period of independent research into arthroplasty.

NHS Employers: New health visiting resources published. The health visiting pages have been revised to include two new shared learning examples: Development of the assistant practitioner role in universal child services; Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust describes their strategy which involves offering student health visitors employment on the successful completion of their Specialist Community Public Health Nursing qualification.  

Public Health Wales: Online training available for smoking cessation practitioners. A new online accredited training course, developed and evaluated by world class experts in smoking cessation, has been made available for smoking cessation staff and key partners of the Stop Smoking Wales programme. it is complemented by a face to face course in behavioural support. Further information and contact details available.

RCN: A shift in the right direction: RCN guidance (PDF 728KB). The health and safety impacts of shift work are widely recognised. Long hours, fatigue and lack of rest breaks or time to recuperate between shifts are associated with an increased risk of errors. In addition, long-term exposure to shift work, particularly night shifts, has been associated with a whole range of health issues for workers ranging from gastrointestinal problems, cardiovascular problems and an increased susceptibility to minor illnesses such as colds. This publication is primarily aimed at RCN safety representatives to assist them in their work with employers to protect members and patients from the negative impacts of shift working. It is also a useful resource for health care managers or specialist advisers responsible for managing shift systems or supporting the health, safety and wellbeing of health care workers.
A shift in the right direction: RCN guidance (PDF 678.4KB). A short version is also available.
News: New shift work guidance launched.

RCN: Safe staffing for older people’s wards: an RCN toolkit (PDF 2.3MB). This provides a simple, practical way to explore nursing staff levels on older people’s wards, or wards where the large majority of patients are older people, and to determine whether they meet the RCN recommendations for safe care. It is based on the RCN recommendations in Safe staffing for older people’s wards (RCN, 2012). The toolkit can be used to support a review of staffing on hospital wards where older people are cared for. It can also be used to help address any associated leadership and workforce issues and provides guidance on developing an action plan that will identify how, and to whom, actions should be addressed.
Safe staffing for older people’s wards calculator. This appears as the appendix in the toolkit as well as a standalone version. 
News: RCN launches publications for nurses working with older people. 

RCN: RCN value highlighted in new film. Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, has explained the reasons for the proposed increase in membership fees in a short film.

RCN: Take part in “Stoptober”. The Royal College of Nursing is encouraging its members to give up smoking this “Stoptober”. The campaign, backed by the Department of Health, encourages people in England to stop smoking for 28 days this October.
Stoptober website.