Speaking ahead of World Patient Safety Day, RCN Director for England, Patricia Marquis, said: "Keeping patients safe is at the heart of everything nurses and nursing support workers do and this year’s theme, medication safety, is about precisely that.
"But with a record one in eight nursing posts in England vacant – and a similar picture across the rest of the UK – the workforce crisis means care is being left undone and patients put at risk. Medication errors become far more likely when staff are overstretched and unable to give their patients the attention they deserve.
"Nursing staff take enormous pride in their work and are distraught that they can’t provide the care they want to give. We know the best way to improve patient safety is to have the right number of staff on shift.
"The public knows that nursing staff are their greatest advocates and this support runs both ways. Ministers need to listen and pay nursing fairly – this is a simple way to recruit and retain more of them."
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