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Search results for "rcn"
20 records
found from year 2005
| View search results from other years: 2006 2004 |
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| Friday, 16 December 2005 15:48 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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A survey of health boards across Scotland found there were more than 22,000 assaults on NHS staff throughout the country in the past year.
Statistics from health authorities were given to BBC Scotland showing continuing high levels of physical attacks, aggressive behaviour and verbal abuse.
The Royal College of Nursing said, despite zero tolerance campaigns, assaults were becoming more frequent and more violent.
RCN Scotland's acting deputy director, Ms Anne Thomson said assaults were becoming more frequent and more violent.
She said: "We've had nurses threatened at gunpoint, threatened with knives on a regular basis and others have been physically assaulted with broken noses and various other types of injuries.
"Nurses have been sexually assaulted on duty and threatened with things like broken bottles and hit with chairs”.
Ms Thomson also said there was growing concern about attacks on primary care workers in the community.
"Nurses are going in on their own - district nurses, health visitors, and midwives - to people's homes and you don't always know who's in the house and you also don't know what kind of situation you are walking in to," she added.
"There could be other people in the house who are heavily under the influence of alcohol or drugs, who may be very violent and you are very vulnerable”.
Ms Thomson has called for a clear zero tolerance message throughout the health service and said action was needed as well as words.
NHS Lothian chairman Brian Cavanagh said violence against health staff was simply not acceptable.
He said: "We will prosecute anyone who assaults our staff, either verbally or physically.
"It is intolerable to subject our staff to verbal or physical attacks while they are performing such a vital role in our community”.
He said training was available for staff to help them deal with situations where verbal or physical attack was a possibility.
But he added: "Violence and aggression will simply not be tolerated by NHS Lothian”.
Nationalist MSP Roseanna Cunningham, convener of the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee, said she would raise the findings with Health Minister Andy Kerr.
"As it happens, the health committee is looking at a forward work programme just now.
"I think I will be consulting with the rest of the members of my committee as to whether or not this might be a suitable thing for us to look at in the longer term”.
The Scottish Executive said violence against NHS staff was "unacceptable".
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| Thursday, 10 November 2005 11:43 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Newly qualified nurses are increasingly unable to get jobs in the NHS because health trusts cannot afford to employ them.
In some areas, as many as 85 per cent of the latest graduates are unemployed. Gill Robertson, a Royal College of nursing student adviser, said: "I have never known it this bad. It is a serious problem and one that is going to be exacerbated come the next out-take in February.
"The average age of a student nurse is 29. These are not school-leavers. These are people who have given up jobs, made a proactive decision to take up nursing and worked extremely hard for three years."
Ms Robertson said many hospitals were in serious debt and were being forced to take cost-cutting measures. "It is almost entirely to blame on trust deficits and the fact that trusts are cash-strapped," she said. "It is easiest for them to put a freeze on jobs. The Government really needs to address the deficits."
In one area of Birmingham, only 10 to 15 per cent of September-leavers had found a nursing job. Coventry, Sheffield, Surrey and Durham are thought to be similarly hard up.
"It's difficult to track this problem because trusts are not parting with information and they are also masking the problem by giving nurses part-time contracts," Ms Robertson said. "It is extremely short-sighted to make nurses pay because patient care depends on them."
Iain Kightley, a member of the RCN's Association of Nursing Students, said: "Out of those who qualified recently at my university [Stirling], 20 out of 65 did not get jobs.
"Some are thinking of quitting their courses and morale is quite low."
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "There are still lots of jobs in the NHS but we don't have the shortages we once had and there is more competition now. New staff may not always be able to find their first-choice job in their first-choice location and may need to be more flexible."
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| Thursday, 10 November 2005 10:58 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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The Health Secretary will today boost the status of senior nurses by giving them powers to prescribe almost every available medicine, for every type of medical condition.
The move will blur the professional lines between doctors and nurses by allowing nurses in England to treat every stage of a patients illness, from diagnosis to prescriptions and monitoring, without supervision by a doctor.
Pharmacists will also be handed more powers over prescriptions, removing the patient’s need to visit their GP in many cases.
Royal College of Nursing officials have welcomed the news but the British Medical Association has reacted with outrage after fighting to block the proposals.
Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the association's GPs' committee, said: "While we support the ability of suitably trained nurses and pharmacists to prescribe from a limited range of medicines for specific conditions, we believe only doctors have the necessary diagnostic and prescribing training that justifies access to the full range of medicines for all conditions.
"This announcement raises patient safety issues and we are extremely concerned that the training provided is not remotely equivalent to the five or six years every doctor has undertaken."
Nurses and pharmacists will face an extra 38 days training after qualifying to become eligible for the new prescription powers, providing they have been recommended by their employer. Some controlled drugs, such as diamorphine, will remain off limits.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The extension means specialist nurses running diabetes and coronary heart disease clinics will be able to prescribe independently for their patients. Pharmacists will be able to independently prescribe for the local community, for example, controlling high blood pressure and diabetes.
"This means that a young person wanting to control their asthma, or a terminally ill patient being cared for at home by a healthcare team, will soon find it easier and more convenient to get the medicines they need. This is another step towards a truly patient-led NHS."
Matt Griffiths, joint prescribing adviser to the RCN, said the restricted list did not include the latest medicines. "If we are given the entire formulary ... it would allow us to assess, diagnose and treat patients' conditions, putting us in charge of the complete episode," he said. "We've been asking for this for 20 years.
"This is not about being doctors. It is about being a maxi-nurse, not a mini-doctor, and providing the best care for the patient."
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| Monday, 31 October 2005 10:26 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Nurses leaders are set to use legal action against the health secretary Patricia Hewitt in a bid to make her abandon plans to “privatise” local health services.
The government’s moves to contract out district nursing, chiropody, family planning and other non-hospital community health services will be the subject of a judicial review application by the Royal College of Nursing.
The RCN fears that some 250,000 jobs could be jeopardised if the changes are pushed through, reducing the role of the NHS to little more than an organiser of services provides by others.
The college said it would serve papers on Ms Hewitt today for her “failure to carry out a public consultation”.
NHS chief executive Sir Nigel Crisp published the plans in July to merge the Primary Care Trusts – which receive about 75 per cent of the total NHS budget and buy services from hospitals and GPs as well as directly employing staff – and relieve them of the direct provider role.
The plans were widely criticised and Ms Hewitt appeared to have backed down last week when she said: "District nurses ... and other staff delivering clinical services will continue to be employed by their PCT unless and until the PCT decides otherwise."
But the RCN said she had not ruled out Sir Nigel’s plans to reduce the provider role of PCTs “to a minimum”.
Howard Catton, the college's head of policy, said: "We have been under incredible pressure from our members who are deeply concerned and anxious about the future of primary care and their personal futures as well."
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| Tuesday, 18 October 2005 10:55 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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NHS Greater Glasgow nurses are to be trained in close combat skills as part of measures to tackle the problem of violent patients, The Scotsman has reported.
The plans follow last week’s announcement that patients who physically or verbally abuse hospital staff will be refused treatment unless the situation is an emergency.
Jim Cameron, director of human resources for Glasgow Acute Hospitals, said the strategy – Violence and Aggression: A targeted response – will include five-day seminars to instruct staff on how to diffuse situations using psychological ploys and, if need be, fight their way out of trouble.
"We are the first authority to implement a strategy that will 'yellow card' offenders and, in if need be, 'red card' them," he said.
"It will include training for staff in high-risk conflict management. Physical self-defence will be part of it."
The Royal College of Nursing said the policy was desperately needed, with the fear of violence contributing to a recruitment crisis.
Joe Gallagher, acting RCN officer for West of Scotland, said: "I had my nose broken once and in the past the attitude has been 'it comes with the territory'.
"Incidents will go unreported because nurses have enough paperwork. Staff morale is very low and there is a recruitment crisis. But this initiative is realistic."
Hazel McNaughton, an accident and emergency nurse manager at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, added: "I've witnessed terrible episodes that affect staff and patients. This [strategy] will hopefully be a step forward, but we'll have to wait for the test case."
However, one nursing organisation said caution was needed. Irenee O'Neill, of the Independent Federation of Nurses, said: "Nurses are stabbed, punched and kicked, but I can't remember a successful prosecution.
"It is fine to say, 'We won't treat you' but the problem might be pushed on to someone else. We also have to be careful about turning people away who might be seriously ill. It has to be carefully monitored."
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| Saturday, 08 October 2005 09:14 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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Mark Jopling, a first year pre-registration house officer in Nottingham, has said that doctors are paid too much while nurses and other hospital staff receive "piffling sums".
Dr Jopling said despite his "humble position" he was paid a "whopping" £37,000 a year. He suggested that doctors' pay could be redistributed to "more stingily paid members of the health professions and other public sector workers" to reflect workload, training and responsibility rather than "assumed social standing".
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed the recognition of nurses' low pay compared to many other staff, but the British Medical Association (BMA) said that Dr Jopling's views were not widely held by the profession.
Writing in the New Statesman, Dr Jopling said: "I am one of the least qualified, least skilled and lowliest paid doctors in my hospital. My days are spent searching for missing heaps of patient notes, running errands and chasing up blood test results. I am a junior house officer, a useful but dispensable cog in a vast machine. Despite my humble position, I am paid a whopping £37,000 a year”.
Dr Jopling said as a consultant in the future he could earn £90,000, while as a GP he could receive £100,000 or more.
"The overstretched NHS budget sets aside enough cash to ensure that the doctors' car park is packed with luxury motors, and that we can leave the chaotic communities which throng our hospital for big houses in the charming villages and estates out of town," he said.
Dr Jopling said it was unfair that doctors' salaries dwarfed those of workers such as teachers, social workers and nurses.
"Amazingly, no-one objects to our pay, but then, we hide the numbers so well behind a tangle of pay bands and percentages that it is unlikely that anyone really knows the scale of the opulence. And who is going to criticise the pay of such awesome life-savers?"
Josie Irwin, the RCN's head of employment relations, said: "It is interesting that he is reflecting how badly he feels nurses are paid and I would say that many nurses would echo what he is saying and say 'great, he has spoken out'."
Ms Irwin pointed out that the RCN's own survey showed that 27% of nurses had a second job to supplement their income, sometimes as agency nurses but also in pubs and elsewhere. She said that nurses were still running behind other public sector workers in terms of pay.
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| Wednesday, 14 September 2005 12:21 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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The Royal College of Nursing claim that nurses across Scotland fear that understaffing is affecting patient safety.
Jane McCready, chairman of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland board, told a meeting in Glasgow that the Scottish Executive was not adequately expanding the workforce to meet patient needs.
Figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) show 274 fewer nurses registered to work in Scotland than in 1990 in contrast with an increase in England and Wales.
Jane McCready said:"These figures clearly show that Scotland has still not recovered from the nurse recruitment crisis of the early 1990s and this is just not acceptable.
"This figure compares poorly with England and Wales, both of which are experiencing an increase in new nurses”.
The RCN also highlighted that only 215 more nurses were now working in Scotland compared with 2001 - up from 64,700.
Jane McCready added: "At a time when workload is increasing and the roles taken on by nurses are expanding, an extra 215 nurses is simply not enough to meet patients' needs.
"What's more, these figures come only a few weeks after the Scottish Executive decided to cut the number of student nurses from 3955 to 3500."
But the Executive said nurse numbers were at an all-time high.
A spokesman said: "We are not complacent. Measures are in place to ensure we can recruit and retain even more staff for Scotland's health service. And we have not cut student nurse recruiting.
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| Sunday, 04 September 2005 12:56 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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The Royal College of Nursing is pressuring ministers to introduce a full smoking ban, saying they treat people for the devastating effects of the habit every day.
The Public Health White Paper published in November proposed the implementation of a ban on smoking in public places by 2008 but stipulated that pubs not serving food would be exempt from the ban.
As the consultation process comes to an end, the RCN has written to the Department of Health saying that 30 people a day die from the effects of second-hand smoke and demanding a full ban.
RCN general secretary Beverly Malone said: "The issue of whether a pub serves food or not is irrelevant.
"This is about having no choice about breathing in the smoke of others and the devastating effects of passive smoking on health."
The RCN letter was backed by more than 5,000 nurses and supporters.
Yana Richens, a consultant midwife from London, said passive smoking in pregnancy is linked to "low birth weight, premature birth and increased perinatal mortality".
"We have a duty to protect these babies and a public ban on smoking would go a long way to achieving this."
And Sam Barlow, a specialist young person's nurse from Hull, added that a full ban was needed to help youngsters quit.
"As a nurse, I work with youngsters who want to quit and see the conflicts and difficulties imposed on them when they visit pubs and clubs."
But Simon Clark, director of smokers' lobby group Forest, cast doubt on the claims second-hand smoke was causing deaths.
"About 18 months ago we were talking about 1,000 a year and now it is 11,000. I think they pluck these numbers out of the air."
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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 10:09 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have warned that nurses are being forced to quit the profession because they cannot afford to buy homes.
The RCN said that the Government's Key Worker Living scheme was helping more nurses buy a home, but many were still excluded from applying for help as it has a limited allocation of funds.
But the RCN says more money should be put into the scheme. It also wants to see it extended outside the South East to other areas where workers currently get no help.
The RCN said that in the first year of the scheme 653 nurses in the South East had been helped on to the property ladder. So far this year 25,000 people have applied to the scheme, of which 5,197 have completed or are at an advanced stage.
Claire Cannings, the RCN's welfare officer, said: "For the 653 nurses helped already, the scheme has been fantastic. But the key worker scheme is over-stretched and the money is already running out. For the many nurses who aren't eligible for this scheme, it can seem divisive and extremely unfair”.
RCN general secretary Beverly Malone said "We've had examples where a senior nurse is talking about becoming a plumber because the wages are better and he can make sure that he has access to a home”.
A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which oversees the scheme, said: "People may have problems buying a property, but if they are not in an area where there is a recruitment and retention issue, the scheme does not operate.
"Staffing levels are monitored by the relevant departments, such as the Department of Health."
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| Saturday, 21 May 2005 10:41 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk |
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A report by the Halifax bank also found that nurses, teachers and fire-fighters are also being priced out of the housing market in up to nine out of ten towns across Britain.
The report indicated that homes in much of the North of England and Scotland are now just as far out of reach of first-time buyers on public sector pay as they are in London and the South East.
The report by Halifax bank found that the percentage of towns where nurses could not afford their first home has risen from 55 to 93 per cent in three years.
Clare Cannings, welfare adviser at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said that more and more nurses were planning to retrain as plumbers or electricians to earn enough for their first house. This would deprive the NHS of staff with years of experience who cannot afford to live near their workplace.
Ms Cannings said: “The NHS is struggling to recruit and retain nurses. If the current house price trend continues the nursing shortage will increase. What the RCN wants is a government commitment to build more affordable housing”.
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