The future of the NHS – can Nurses lead the way for improvements?

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} There hasbeen a lot of speculation about how the NHS can be made a more efficientservice within the government’s budget, no more so than now when the country isfighting its way out of a recession.   Over the years it has been primarily management and parliamentaryfigures undertaking many of the major decisions over policies and how moneyshould be spent.   This however does not guaranteethat the voices and opinions of nurses, midwives and other ground staff withinthe NHS are given a fair hearing.   At thisyear’s Chief Nurse’s conference though, Christine Beasley chief nursingofficer for England ,will be giving every nurse a voice when she will present ten “high impactactions” which will have been suggested by nurses.   The proposed actions will have been suggestedvia the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement website, where nursescould advocate their ideas, browse other people’s actions, comment on, and votefor their favorites.   The proposedactions made were to be those which are already in practice by midwives andnurses, and which were demonstrating improvement in the quality of care andreducing costs.   A letter from chief nurses on the Institute’s website haslabeled the choosing of ten high impact actions “a call to action for allnurses and midwives”, with the idea being to improve patient care and theeffectiveness of nursing jobs.   The chiefnursing officer had previously warned that if nurses didn’t show efficiency andstrong leadership within their jobs they could possibly face cuts bymanagement.   This was their chance toprove themselves as efficient policy makers.   Nurse jobs involving individualised patient care and riskassessment had many suggested calls to action. For example when assessing whichpatients were likely to have accidents when in care, one hospital has adopted ascheme where patients were classed as “at risk” or “not at risk” as opposed tobeing ranked on a scale.   This led to amore individual approach to each patient, and has significantly reduced theamount of falls and accidents in the hospital, saving thousands of pounds insaved bed days.   If simple examples suchas this could be rolled out nationwide, the savings could be tremendous.   Surveys like this top ten high impact actions give animportant and powerful voice to nurses and midwives.   They are the people who treat and deal withpatients on a daily basis and work within the hospitals, giving them aqualified voice to comment on the way things are run. Unfortunately sometimestheir voices are not heard by management, despite there being worker’s unionsin place, but this vote of confidence from the chief nursing officer shouldgive a boost to the morale of the hard working staff within UK hospitals. Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} The author works fora website specialised in nursing jobs and nursejobs in the UK .

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