staffing issues

[lisamct]

First a quick history, I an RNMH working in an NHS resource centre,since last year we have been on a ''re-design'' (closure) programe which has unsurprisingly led to staff shortages. My unit is split into 3 'houses' each of which should have a registered nurse on each shift but recently we have regularly been working with only 1 nurse for all 3 houses. Each time this happens we document the situation in our management report however I know for a fact that these reports go no further than her secretary and are never actually read by management. So, what we're looking for is some type of documentation that specifically covers staff shortage and the consequensces for the residents and staff, that we can use which maybe requires some sort of response from management. Im not even sure if such a thing is in use anywhere but if anyone knows of such a thing could they give me some info on it.

Basically we are trying to cover our backs whilst we fight for more staff which is a problem in itself as no one wants to apply to a unit which is known to be closing down (eventually). Our management are well aware of the staffing situation but of course it'll be our registrations on the line if and when a major incident occurs.

So, any help or advice would be gratefully recieved,

Lisa

[karenG]

have you spoken to the RCN about this? they might have some ideas

Karen

[jevans]

we used to include staff shortage on clinical incident forms

This happened so often that Health & Safety included into the form as a category

Also in the Uk we have as a part of clinical governance a form of reporting.......will obtain details tomorrow for you

[tony summers]

Have you spoken to your Human Resources Department they should all ready have the appropriate forms there. Other get in touch with RCN. Management should acknowledge something like this.

[donmurray]

Your RCn steward should have access to unsafe staffing forms, failing that, the incident form is as good, since copies must be sent to clinical governance.

[lisamct]

Our RCN rep is also unfortunately our manager who is already choosing to ignore the reports sent to her but maybe I could try to find out who is in surrounding areas.

I've spoken to human resources and they claimed to have never heard of such a thing, they also suggested using incident forms. I'll have a look at our incident forms today at work but Im sure that, after they were redesigned by our trust a few years ago, that theres no where to put anything thats not classed as accident or violence/aggression. They thought that as we were putting in so many incident forms for violenct/aggressive incidents that they would change them to make it easier for us to fill in.

Im goint to phone our proffesional nurse advisor today and see what hes got to say.

Thanks for the advice,

Lisa

[mageean]

In my area we use "Service Shortfall Forms" which are fed up the line to senior management and while not always producing extra staff ,at least the Board are aware of the problem.