THE UL Hospitals Group has welcomed this week’s launch of the interim report of the taskforce on staffing and skill mix for nursing.
The purpose is to improve patient safety and patient experience by ensuring medical and surgical wards in hospitals have the right number of nurses and midwives with the right mix of skills.
In the context of an ongoing shortage of nurses and midwives, this new approach should also help Irish hospitals recruit and retain more of these highly skilled professionals.
UL Hospitals Group director of nursing and midwifery Margaret Gleeson was one of 17 members of the Steering Group which produced the interim report and which continues to work on a national framework for nursing staffing and skill mix on general and specialist medical and surgical wards.
“The aim is to move away from the historic approach of staffing our wards based on size. The new approach will ensure that the number of nurses and midwives on duty reflects the activity on the ward and the acuity and dependency levels of patients being cared for.
“This will result in better outcomes for patients and will also improve the working environment for our staff,” Ms Gleeson said.
“It is hoped that nurses and midwives themselves will have a more stable working environment and that they will be encouraged to stay in our hospitals at a time when they are very much in demand all around the world. It is further hoped that this new approach will reduce our reliance on agency staffing.
“Most importantly, patients will benefit if we can retain more of our highly skilled and experienced nurses and midwives”, she explained.
