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:
"Who cares wins: leadership and the business of caring"
An exploratory
study of the clinical content of NHS Trust meetings in an attempt to identify
good practice', University of Plymouth
NEW BOOST TO LEADERSHIP IN PATIENT CARE
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.
Launch of The Burdett Institute of Gastrointestinal Nursing
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Left to right:
Baroness Pitkeathley, Professor Christine Norton,
Professor Dame Jennifer Wilson-Barnett, former head of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, Sue Norman |
The launch of The Burdett Institute of Gastrointestinal Nursing, a collaboration between St Mark's Hospital and Kings College London, took place at the House of Lords on Friday 14 January 2005. Burdett Trust for Nursing gave a grant of £835,000 to establish the new institute, which must become self-funding within five years. The event was hosted by former social worker Baroness Jill Pitkeathley and well-attended by a range of healthcare professionals.
Sue Norman, a Trustee of the Burdett Trust for Nursing said
"When the trust first considered the application for funding from St Mark's Hospital there was a sharp intake of breath at the size and the scope of what was being proposed, but as we probed further we soon realised that the project has the potential to make the kind of long-term impact on patient care and excellence in nursing that we wanted to support. It is the most substantial grant that this trust has made to date, and it's encouraging to know that the progress made by St Mark's and their academic partner, Kings College London, has sustained our confidence in the commitment we have made."
Further information about the Burdett Institute for Gastrointestinal Nursing can be found at www.burdettinstitute.org.uk
First Comprehensive Picture of the Global Nursing Workforce
Geneva, Switzerland; London, UK, 4 March 2004: The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is carrying out the first systematic investigation of the nursing workforce globally. The global analysis aims to identify the policy and practice issues and solutions that should be considered by governments, international agencies, employers and professional associations when addressing the supply and utilization of nurses. The outcome will be a policy paper aimed at key decision makers, highlighting the extent of the global nursing shortage, its main dynamics and regional and country variations.
"The nursing shortage is undermining the goals of health systems globally and challenging our ability to meet the health needs of populations", explained Judith Oulton, Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses. "We need to move quickly in establishing a global picture of the actual situation and the potential solutions."
The Burdett Trust For Nursing is supporting this timely evaluation of the state of nursing human resources worldwide. "The Burdett Trust For Nursing is delighted that one of the first major awards it has made is to support such an important global investigation which is likely to bring benefits to nurses, patients and their communities all over the world. Robust sustainable solutions are needed to meet the fundamental challenges arising from the global shortage of nurses. These challenges will only become greater as the nursing contribution to healthcare becomes fully recognised worldwide", stated the Trustees.
ICN will be utilizing the expertise of a Reference Group drawn from nursing, health sector planning and human resource development. Representatives from government, public and private sector employers, education, regulatory authorities, national nursing associations and nurse researchers will also contribute.
The outcomes from this analysis will be used as a backdrop to a high-level Global Nursing Resource Summit scheduled to take place early in 2005. The Summit will bring together decision makers to discuss the findings and evidence base in order to make sound recommendations related to nursing human resources.
Dr. James Buchan of Queen Margaret University College in the United Kingdom will lead the assessment. Dr Buchan is a labour economist with extensive experience in nursing workforce analysis.