NEW HANDBOOK FOR NURSE EXECUTIVES
July 2009
get support.
The King’s Fund has worked intensively with nurse executives and their boards in 13 sites across the UK, developing a picture of what good practice in the business of caring looks like. The guidance offered in this handbook was developed by interviewing current executive nurses and other board members about their experiences, so that others could learn valuable lessons to enable them to fulfil their role as effectively as possible.
The Trustees hope that the handbook will make an important contribution to the quality agenda, recognising the pivotal role that
nurse executives can play leading on the safety and effectiveness of patient care.
To download a copy of the Handbook please click on the link below
" The Nurse Executives Handbook "
FROM WARD TO BOARD
February 2009
Identifying good practice in the business of caring
In recent years, NHS boards have often been preoccupied with financial performance, but they also have to engage with the quality of clinical care. A programme of work developed by The King’s Fund, in partnership with the Burdett Trust for Nursing, has focused on the role of nurse executives in helping boards to assure themselves of the quality of clinical care. Based on observations at seven pilot sites, this report suggests there are valuable lessons to be learnt about the role and attributes of the nurse executive, but also lessons about the structure, processes and behaviours of boards.
The report is available from the King’s Fund using the following link:
www.kingsfund.org.uk/burdettreport
CALL FOR NHS TRUSTS TO PRIORITISE PATIENT CARE
October 2006
The Burdett Trust for Nursing is backing an initiative to put patient care firmly on the agenda of NHS Trust boards.
The Trust believes that patients and their care should carry equal weight on board agendas with finance, targets and outputs.
Earlier this year the Trust commissioned a study by OPM into the business aspects of patient care and the implications for the clinical professions and their boards.
The study, entitled "Who cares wins: Leadership and the Business of Caring", found that nursing leaders within trusts often lack the skills, confidence and opportunity to ensure that clinical and patient care issues are adequately discussed at board level.
And in a companion study, University of Plymouth researchers found that, in a representative sample of NHS trusts, 14% of the items minuted at board meetings directly concerned clinical issues. There was a variation of between 7% - 22% in a year for different trusts.
The results of the study were unveiled in London to an invited audience of leading healthcare opinion formers on 17th October 2006.
Speaking at the launch Sir William Wells, Chairman of the NHS Appointments Commission, who chaired the advisory group for the study, said:
"Far too few Trust boards spend enough time at their board meetings talking about their core business, the care and treatment of their patients."
"Recent events at Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Northwick Park Maternity Services have highlighted what happens when corporate and professional leadership are poorly focused. This is not about the occasional satisfaction survey, but rather the competence, credibility and authority to performance manage the whole patient experience, wherever that is located. It is about taking patient care issues from the bedside to the boardroom."
More than 50 leading healthcare opinion formers attended the launch and took part in a round-table discussion on how the NHS and the independent health sector could best tackle the issue of leadership.
The NHS Confederation will follow up this theme with Confederation members in a seminar in November and at its annual conference in June 2007.
To download pdfs of the full studies, please click on the links below:
NEW BOOST TO LEADERSHIP IN PATIENT CARE
October 2006
Burdett Trust for Nursing launches 'LEADERSHIP AND THE BUSINESS OF CARING' - a project to take patient care issues "from bedside to boardroom."
A new nursing initiative aims to push patient care up the Board agenda of health trusts and address the further development of senior nurses.
The Burdett Trust for Nursing has commissioned the Office for Public Management (OPM) to carry out a study to form the basis for the development for executive nurses and the Boards of which they are members.
Increasingly patient-centred healthcare provision and commissioning are demanding a different approach to the way local Boards operate and manage patient care .Customer care, reputation, marketing, risk management and innovative quality care now need equal ranking with finance, targets and outcomes on Boards' agendas.
OPM will conduct surveys, interviews and workshops over the next two months involving a wide range of those with professional and community interests in healthcare. It will report results and recommendations in mid April.
Alan Gibbs, chairman of the Trust, said: 'The development of leadership for patient care is one of our key areas of interest and we have made it the subject of the Trust's first commissioned project. Being independent gives us a unique opportunity to push the boundaries of innovation in support of patients and nurses.'
Sir William Wells, chairman, NHS Appointments Commission, who chairs the Trust's advisory group on the project said: "I want to see provider and commissioning Boards with the right information and skills to support and challenge standards of patient care - and by that I mean the whole care experience.
"Executive nurses, with their medical director colleagues, can play a critical role as custodians of patient care on behalf of Boards. But, to do that effectively in the future, their role and preparation need a radical overhaul. That's why I am delighted to be chairing the advisory group for this timely and important project."
Audrey Emerton, former founder Trustee, Burdett Trust, said: "Caring and compassion matter to patients and carers as much as the outcomes of care. Poor standards of care and caring continue to have a high profile in the media. This is distressing for patients, and worrying for staff and, frankly, bad for the reputation of healthcare business. Patients and carers look to nurses, at all levels, to be the guardians of standards of caring. "I believe nurses at board level, with the appropriate authority, preparation and skills, are key to making the monitoring and performance management of the whole patient experience matter as much in the boardroom as it does at the bedside. The need to develop and prepare nurses for this role is urgent and I warmly welcome the initiative from the Burdett Trust."
Anyone involved in or interested in patient care can take part in the online survey at OPM's website at http://www.opm.co.uk/surveys/burdett/nursing.htm OPM will also be contacting health professionals and special interest groups direct about taking part.
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