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Health Education England (HEE) has announced that its new £10 million training programme, intended to ‘boost’ the critical care workforce, will be rolled out this autumn. According to HEE, the funds it secured earlier this year will provide nurses and Allied Health Professionals with a ‘nationally recognised pathway’ to further their careers in Adult Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Specialist training, delivered through a ‘blended learning package’ could help to strengthen the ICU workforce across England and will offer around 10,500 nursing staff the chance to undertake courses and ‘further their careers’. There will be a focus on flexible training – enabling participants to balance family and caring commitments, as well as taking into account those who are unable to travel, when the roll-out of the programme begins. The learning will be delivered by higher education institutions, Critical Care Skills Networks and acute trusts, and it is expected to take participants up to 12 months to receive the standardised qualification. It’s hoped that the programme could lead staff to career opportunities such as becoming a shift leader or clinical educator, or to lead on research. Read full article here Original source: Leading Healthcare News

Ministers are being warned of a mounting workforce crisis in England’s hospitals as they struggle to recruit staff for tens of thousands of nursing vacancies, with one in five nursing posts on some wards now unfilled. Hospital leaders say the nursing shortfall has been worsened by a collapse in the numbers of recruits from Europe, including Spain and Italy. The most recent NHS figures reveal there are about 39,000 vacancies for registered nurses in England, with one in 10 nursing posts unfilled on acute wards in London and one in five nursing posts empty on mental health wards in the south-east. Thousands of nursing shifts each week cannot be filled because of staff shortages, according to hospital safe staffing reports seen by the Observer. Patricia Marquis, England director for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “There just aren’t enough staff to deliver the care that is needed, and we now have a nursing workforce crisis. We should never have got into a position where we were so dependent on international nurses. We are on a knife-edge.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2021

The US Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has expressed its shock that the Tennessee (TN) Board of Nursing has recently revoked RaDonda Vaught’s professional nursing license indefinitely, fining her $3,000, and stipulating that she pay up to $60,000 in prosecution costs. RaDonda was involved in a fatal medication error after entering “ve” in an automated dispensing cabinet (ADC) search field, accidentally removing a vial of vecuronium instead of VERSED (midazolam) from the cabinet via override, and unknowingly administering the neuromuscular blocking agent to the patient. While the Board accepted the state prosecutor’s recommendation to revoke RaDonda’s nursing license, ISMP doubts that the Board’s action was just, and believe that it has set patient safety back by 25 years. On September 27, 2019, in a stark reversal of a 2018 decision to take no licensing action against the nurse, the TN Board of Nursing filed disciplinary action against RaDonda that focused on three violations: Unprofessional conduct related to nursing practice and the five rights of medication administration Abandoning or neglecting a patient requiring nursing care Failure to maintain a record of interventions. During the hearing, RaDonda was given an opportunity to testify and defend herself; however, she never shrank from admitting her mistake. According to her defense attorney, her acceptance of responsibility for the error was immediate, extraordinary, and continuing. However, RaDonda also testified that the error was made because of flawed procedures at the hospital, particularly the lack of timely communication between the pharmacy computer system and the ADC, which led to significant delays in accessing medications and the hospital’s permission to temporarily override the ADC to obtain prescribed medications that were not yet linked to the patient’s profile in the ADC. Although many questions regarding RaDonda’s alleged failures and the event remain unanswered, the Board still voted unanimously to strip RaDonda of her nursing license and levy the full monetary penalties allowed, noting that there were just too many red flags that RaDonda “ignored” when administering the medication. The ISMP has asked whether the Board’s action was fair and just in this situation? Read full story Source: ISMP, 12 August 2021

NHS trusts in London are looking to dilute their intensive care nurse-to-patient ratios due to workforce shortages, according to a leading critical care nurse. Nicki Credland, chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, told HSJ’s Patient Safety Congress that trust leaders in London have discussed relaxing the ratios from one nurse per patient, to one nurse per 1.75 patients. ICU staffing ratios have been intermittently diluted throughout the covid pandemic, but this has previously been used as a temporary measure. Ms Credland, a keynote speaker at the event on Tuesday, suggested some trusts are now looking at a permanent shift away from one-to-one care. She added: “What we are seeing now is that certain trusts in the country are doing exactly what we were worried about." “Starting to move away from those [guidelines for the provision of intensive care services] standards that we have, that protect both us as nurses but also protect the patient’s safety as well." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 September 2021

More than 600,000 cancer patients in the UK are facing treatment delays or missing out on vital support because of a shortage of specialist nurses, a new report from Macmillan Cancer Support reveals. One in five of all those living with cancer (21%) are lacking dedicated support. The NHS is suffering from a “shocking” shortfall of 3,000 specialist nurses in England alone, according to the analysis by Macmillan Cancer Support. As a result, cancer patients are struggling with medication, having hospital appointments cancelled because there are not enough staff or experiencing devastating delays to chemotherapy. In some cases, patients are ending up in A&E. Patricia Marquis, England director of the Royal College of Nursing, warned the workforce crisis was having a “devastating impact” on people living with cancer. “Expertise built up over many years is lost very quickly and it is patients who pay the price, as this report shows,” she added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 September 2021

New data from NHS Digital on the latest vacancy statistics shows as of June 2021 there were 38,952 registered nurse vacancies across the health service, with the Royal College of Nursing saying news of worsening nurse shortages should “stun” ministers into taking action. RCN England director, Patricia Marquis, has said: “As health and care services head into what will be a very difficult winter, this should stun ministers to address the rising number of nursing vacancies and prevent further risk to patient care. After the pressures from the last 18 months we also know that many experienced nurses are considering leaving the profession. These are skills that cannot be replaced quickly. Unless there is an urgent investment in the nursing workforce, starting with an increase in pay that reflects their skill and professionalism, and there is accountability for workforce planning at ministerial level, we will be dealing with the fallout for years to come.” Read full story. Source: Nursing Times, 26 August 2021

Selena Brash, a clinical team lead with the East Hampshire school nursing team, has spoken out about the controversial plans to cut back public health nursing services in Hampshire. Ms Brash, in response to the Hampshire County Council plans to save £6.8m from its public health budget, started a petition earlier in the summer calling for increased funding “to protect the provision of school nurses”, warning that cuts to to public health school nursing services would “result in a detrimental effect on children and young people’s health and wellbeing, with lifelong consequences”. “If the cuts go ahead, then this could set a precedent for other local authorities to follow suit, meaning there would be a massive impact on the health and wellbeing of our young people and future generations,” Ms Brash told Nursing Times. Read full story. Source: Nursing Times

This interview with April Kapu, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, FAANP, FCCM, FAAN, a critical care nurse, discusses how Nurse Practitioners are changing healthcare, the likelihood of all states granting full practice authority to NPs, and what the American Association of Nurse Practitioner members can expect from her for the next two years. Read full story. Source: American Medical Association, 16 August 2021

Vaccinated nurses will now be expected to return to work instead of isolating as new rules are set to relax. In a letter on the latest rule change from NHS England chief nursing officer Ruth May, chief people officer Prerana Issar, and medical director for primary care Dr Nikita Kanani said “Fully vaccinated staff and students who are identified as a contact of a positive Covid-19 case will no longer be expected to isolate and will be expected to return to work.” Staff returning to work are required to have been double jabbed, have no Covid-19 symptoms and receive a negative PCR test. This latest change in rules go in line with changes for the wider population. Read full story. Source: Nursing Times, 16 August 2021