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Just one third of shifts have enough nurses, analysis shows
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Rapid test for UTI wins Longitude Prize on AMR
The £8m Longitude Prize on AMR has been awarded by Challenge Works (part of innovation agency Nesta) to the PA-100 AST System from Sysmex Astrego. The Prize was launched to incentivise
Workforce shortages in hospital and community services are so severe that patients are being left in pain and in some cases dying alone, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned, as new analysis shows just a third of shifts had enough registered nurses. The RCN has released its latest ‘Last Shift’ survey
results, which asked more than 11,000 nursing staff about their experiences on their most recent shift. Nursing staff say they are demoralised from being unable to keep patients safe, with hundreds of services unable to fill the number of registered nurse posts planned for.
In hospitals and community settings, just a third
(Hospital, 32%; Community, 36%) of nursing staff said that their shift had the planned number of registered nurses on it. One in three hospital shifts were missing at least a quarter of the registered nurses they needed, while in the community almost four in ten shifts were missing up to half of the planned number of registered nurses. Across all settings, eight in ten (81%) say there
aren’t sufficient numbers of nurses to meet the needs of patients safely. The RCN is calling for legally enforceable nurse-patient ratios to be introduced. Across shifts in hospitals and in the community, nursing staff say there are too few of them to keep up with demand. In A&E settings, significant numbers of nurses reported having more than 51 patients to care for. In outpatient settings, caseloads of more than 51 patients were consistently reported.
A nurse working in the community in the South
West of England, said: “We have days when we have 60 visits unallocated because we don’t have enough staff. Every day we are asked to do more. We are always rushing.” Another, also working in the community in the South of England, said: “We leave
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over 50 patients requiring nursing care unseen on a daily basis due to poor staffing levels. This leads to increases in hospital admissions and death. It is left to us to decide who gets seen and who gets missed, which is heartbreaking.” The RCN says understaffing creates a ‘vicious
cycle’ in which patients cannot access guaranteed timely care close to home, causing conditions to worsen and heaping more pressure on hospitals where shortages are just as severe. In a hospital in the West Midlands, England, one nurse, said: “I have not been able to sit with patients who are dying, meaning they have been left to die alone. I have not had the time to make sure patients are fed properly and have adequate drinks.” A student nurse, working in an NHS hospital in
the West Midlands, said: “Medications have been hours late, leaving patients in severe pain. Patients have not had their personal care done as often as necessary to keep them clean after episodes of incontinence.”
RCN Acting General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “In every health and care setting, nursing staff are fighting a losing battle to keep patients safe. Without safety-critical limits on the maximum number of patients they can care for, nurses are being made responsible for dozens at a time, often with complex needs. It is dangerous to patients and demoralising for nursing staff. “When patients cannot access safe care in the community, conditions worsen and they end up in hospital where workforce shortages are just as severe. This vicious cycle fails staff and patients - it cannot go on. We desperately need urgent investment in the nursing workforce but also to see safety-critical nurse-patient ratios enshrined in law.”
the creation of new diagnostic tests that, in a matter of minutes, can identify whether an infection is bacterial, enabling the right antibiotic to be prescribed. The goal was to replace the 2-3 day lab test process and end “just in case” prescribing that is prevalent as a result. The PA-100 AST System is an innovative diagnostic test based on technology from Uppsala University. The test aims to transform the treatment of UTIs (urinary tract infections) and bring the power of laboratory testing into a doctor’s office. Using a tiny (400 microlitre/ less than half a millilitre) sample of urine on a smartphone-sized cartridge, the test can identify the presence of a bacterial infection in just 15 minutes and accurately identify the right antibiotic to treat it within 45 minutes. It opens up the possibility of previously “retired” first-line antibiotics coming back into use for the majority of patients.
£1.4m awarded for MND research
Three projects led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) have received MND Translational Accelerator awards totalling £1.47 million to fund research into Motor Neuron Disease (MND). The projects are part of a £5.8 million investment
by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to speed up the development of treatments for MND, and the related condition of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The research will help fund research into the
following areas: improving clinical trial designs to address the urgent need for MND treatment; investigating RBM3 as a potential therapeutic target; and identifying personalised indicators of ALS onset and progression. The awards were part of the £50 million
government investment in the new MND Research Institute.
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