From June 2014 all hospitals are required to publish monthly information about the number of nursing and midwifery staff working on each ward, together with the percentage of shifts meeting safe staffing guidelines.
We are committed to ensuring we have safe nurse staffing levels on our wards, and in line with best practice, aim for wards to have no less than one Registered Nurse to eight patients during the day and one Registered Nurse to 11 patients at night.
Any identified gaps are met from the central Temporary Nurse Staffing Bank or by existing ward based staff working additional hours, with agency staff requested when all other avenues have been exhausted.
Any day to day issues with nurse staffing are resolved at daily Matron’s Safety Huddle or by the Clinical Manager or Site Manager on duty, and revisited throughout the day as required.
In recognition of the valuable contribution our senior nurses make to patient care, our Ward Nurse Managers (Sisters/Charge Nurses) now have a supervisory role across the working week. This means that they are, in addition to the rostered nurses on duty, visible to patients and families and focussed on leading the nursing team in enhancing the quality and safety of care delivered on their wards.
Each month we publish a template of the planned and actual numbers of nursing staff who were on duty on each ward. This is available to the public in the staffing folder below, and also on the NHS website.
We also ensure that day to day nurse staffing information is accessible to patients, their families and carers on our ward/department ‘How Are We Doing?’ and “Nurse in Charge” boards.
Information about nursing staffing levels for our wards and services can be found below.