Safer staffing stakeholder event

This story supports Time to care, printed on pages 6 and 7 of the 7 September issue of RCN Bulletin.

The RCN hosted a stakeholder event on 1 September to launch the RCN project Safer staffing for older people in hospital.

At the event, Nicky Hayes, RCN Older People’s Nursing Adviser, spoke of the major themes arising from recent reports into hospital care of older people and outlined the key elements the project will address:

Nicky highlighted crucial evidence from a 2010 RCN survey on staffing levels which helped inform the project. "I presented evidence from the survey that staffing levels on older people’s wards are more dilute than on other types of wards, and that there is a clear link between short staffing and compromised care," she said.

Nicky’s presentation included statistics which showed that while there are 4.6 patients per registered nurse on children’s wards, there are 11.3 patients per registered nurse on older people’s wards.

Chaired by Janet Davies, RCN Director of Nursing and Service Delivery, representatives in attendance included those from Age UK, Patients Association, Parkinson’s UK and Care Quality Commission.

"Our stakeholder organisations identified areas of common concern including the quality of care provided for older people in hospital, the role of clinical leaders, support for frontline staff and the preparation of nurses to care for people with complex needs," Nicky said.

"I am delighted that our stakeholder organisations demonstrated their support for our project and look forward to working with them going forward," she added.

Nicky said the RCN will be working closely with these organisations throughout the project to ensure strong joint lobbying for the right staffing for older people’s wards.

Following on from the successful event, next steps on the project agenda include linking the RCN Principles of Nursing Practice to the care of older people, and a public consultation on staffing issues.

Don’t forget your input is vital to make the project a success. Please fill in the member survey on care for older people in hospital.

Further reading - some of the files below are PDFs, see how to access PDFs:

Guidance on safe staffing levels in the UK (PDF 1,744KB)
RCN policy position: evidence based nurse staffing levels (PDF 870KB)
RCN Principles of Nursing Practice