Nurse shortage leads to ‘Tomorrow’s Ward’
PHARMACISTS and physiotherapists could be tasked with onward patient care as hospital bosses in Leicester battle a serious nursing shortage.
University Hospitals of Leicester has around 500 nursing vacancies with no immediate prospect of filling anything but a quarter of those places.
It has left bosses musing over a new concept called “Tomorrow’s Ward” where non-nursing health workers at the trust might be trained to offer care and support previously offered by nurses.
The issue was highlighted in a report in the industry magazine Health Service Journal (HSJ).
It has been addressed in detail by a post on the trust’s Facebook page.
On the post Julie Smith, chief nurse at University Hospitals of Leicester said: “Our “Tomorrow’s Ward” concept is being designed to examine the needs of patients ward by ward, to see which roles, including other allied health professions such as pharmacists and therapists, are needed to deliver safe, high quality care for our patients.
“Some of our registered nurses are doing tasks they don’t need to do, like cleaning bed spaces and giving out drinks, things other people can be trained to do.
“To be clear, this is not an exercise to save costs and we will not undermine the need for registered nurses on our wards.
“But there just are not enough registered nurses and every trust is finding this a challenge.”
She added: “We have no intention of reducing the overall number of registered nurses in our organisation.”
The nursing shortfall is expected to grow given the UK’s departure from the EU and the fact more nurses are leaving the nursing and midwifery council register than joining.
Over the next five years the NHS will also feel the impact of around 38,000 nurses retiring from the profession.
Recruitment has proved diffi- cult with some placing the blame on the axing of the nursing bursary which, in the past, saw trainee nurses paid while they were learning.
Now those entering the profession are expected to take out student loans to finance their study leaving newly qualified nurses saddled with debt.
Add to that the cap on public sector pay, which has seen nurses ballot for strike action, inability in retaining nurses is also having an impact on numbers available to hospital trusts.
University Hospitals of Leicester has already lost more than half of the peak 440 nurses from the EU it had recruited.
And while some 200 experienced Indian and Filipino nurses are keen to come to Leicester, the process of getting them on site is lengthy and challenging, particularly in getting their English language up to the required standards.
Over the next two months vacancies will be filled, however, as 120 newly-qualified nurses will be joining the trust’s three hospitals
Ms Smith said: “We cannot in the short term rely on being able to recruit the numbers of registered nurses we need so we cannot keep doing what we have always done.
“We have to make sure patients get the right care by the right staff.”
A new pilot scheme involving ‘nursing associate trainees’ is expected, in part, to relieve the crisis.
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland are among 35 test sites for the new role as selected by Health Education England (HEE).