Ward sisters/charge nurses need to be a given a more prominent leadership role in hospitals if standards of acute nursing care are to be improved, according to a new paper from the University of Birmingham’s leading health policy unit, the Health Services Management Centre.
The paper, Time to Care? Responding to concerns about poor nursing care, makes a series of recommendations to support nurses working in acute hospital care to deliver a better service for patients. As well as recommendations focused on leadership, the paper also identifies the need for a systematic approach to supporting nurses with the emotional stress of caring work and a recognised training programme for healthcare support workers. Researchers gathered views of those working in the NHS before convening a series of focus groups involving senior nurses, particularly directors of nursing, to explore the relevant issues and seek practical solutions. The seven core recommendations included:
• Ward sisters/charge nurses need to have a clearly defined role as the clinical leader of their ward/department. They need to be recruited based on their attitudes and competencies; developed and supported as leaders, and their role recognised at all levels of the organisation.
• Senior nurse leaders need to be freed from the competing demands placed upon their time to enable them to fulfil the prime role of leading clinical nursing.
• Where new ward designs limit the visibility of nurses, systems of ‘intentional rounding’ should be introduced to ensure organisational processes enable nurse patient contact to be maintained.
• Clinical dashboards that measure nursing care indicators, which can then be reported to the Board, are an important tool which should be introduced into every acute hospital Trust.
• Student nurses need to feel a greater sense of belonging to the nursing profession rather than being identified primarily as a university student.
• Healthcare support workers would benefit from a recognised training programme in every organisation, underpinned by a probationary period for all new starters.
• Boards should recognise the emotional labour of nursing and establish a systematic approach to supporting nurses. This should be evaluated to assess its impact on nurses as carers and the subsequent outcome for patients.
