Workforce issues
healthcare professionals feel overwhelmed with the current volume of healthcare data available to them. As a result, 83% believe training needs to be overhauled so it can keep pace with technological advancements. The reason I left the NHS was also the reason I joined Ascom. As a nurse, I believe technology, when done right and integrated properly, could make a massive impact on me and my colleagues. Technology isn’t the cure-all for easing the mental and wellbeing burden of NHS workers. It will never replace a nurse or a clinician, but it can provide huge support by taking away some of the stresses and strains that distracts them from their patients. Let’s embrace new ways of working so we can empower those on the frontline to do what they do best – to have the time to provide real care for patients.
References 1.
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/nhs-staff- quit-record-numbers-ptsd-covid-pandemic- trauma-1387115
2.
https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/news/2021/ april/mental-health-symptoms-quadruple- across-nhs-healthcare-workers-during-covid-19/
3.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/health- secretary-sets-out-ambitious-tech-agenda
COMMENT with DR. FARZANA RAHMAN
The importance of feeling valued
The nurse’s strike is about more than pay; it’s about the importance of being valued at work, argues Dr. Farzana Rahman*. A few years ago, a consultant colleague showed me a Christmas card he had received
from another department. In it was a handwritten message thanking him for the great service he provided and how his hard work meant that patients with suspected cancer were being diagnosed more quickly. After reading the message he said, “this will keep me going for another year.” This simple statement illustrates why feeling valued at work is an incredibly powerful
CSJ
motivator, especially in healthcare. This does not detract from the importance of financial compensation and its role in making employees feel valued. It just means that non-financial incentives also play a key role in motivating employees to remain with an organisation like the NHS, as long as recruiting minimums, like salary, are met. This is why resolving the root causes of the nurses’ strike needs to go deeper than fixing the pay dispute – the Government needs to win back nurses’ trust and find a way to make them feel valued again. In the words of GP, Dr. Amir Khan: “The nurses’ strike isn’t just about pay […] it’s about being valued for the work they do.” So, looking beyond pay, what are the non-financial factors that motivate those who work in healthcare? A study by Dutton et al, which looked at housekeepers working in hospitals, highlighted the importance of ‘felt worth.’ This concept is similar to the idea of self-esteem, but where individuals also gauge their value through how they are viewed by others. Recognition and positive feedback all contributed positively to this concept of ‘felt worth’, which in turn motivated employees. If healthcare workers relate their self-worth to how they are viewed, can we assume that
years of negative press coverage has had a significant impact on their morale, performance and recruitment? If so, we may be seeing the real-world consequences of this play out in the nurses’ strike, as healthcare workers start to confront their lack of felt worth within the NHS. When it comes to valuing employees, what lessons could healthcare be learning from the
About the author
Sophie Evans is a registered nurse. She worked within the NHS for more than seven years, as a surgical staff nurse and then a critical care nurse at Wales’ largest critical care unit at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. Sophie now works for healthcare communications and technology expert, Ascom UK, as a clinical sales consultant helping advise healthcare providers on the right technology to support clinicians and improve workflow and clinical outcomes for patients.
commercial sector, where traditional nine to five jobs are becoming a thing of the past? This change has been accompanied by a growing movement examining how organisations value, reward and incentivise their employees. In his best-selling book, Work Rules, Laszlo Bock, head of People Operations at Google, talks about the importance of both financial and non-financial incentives. He found that promoting a culture of rewarding, valuing and empowering employees directly translated to better company performance. Looking at the current climate of the NHS it might seem impossible that a similar attitude could be adopted there, but without a radical change in the way that we think about rewarding our healthcare workers we are going to lose them. As well as addressing pay issues, the Government and the NHS need to start considering
how they can start offering non-financial incentives to healthcare workers as part of a wider programme to increase their felt worth. Incentives could include increased support for workers’ training, career development programmes to help workers to feel secure in their jobs, and avenues for both public and professional appreciation to ensure that they feel supported and valued. Combining financial and non-financial incentives is key to finding a long-term solution to the NHS’s staffing crisis and stopping the seemingly endless cycle of pay disputes and strikes. The simple fact is this, if we expect to have a world-class health system then we need to recruit high-calibre staff and understand what motivates and incentivises them. To ignore the impact of the current negative climate on our workforce is naïve. In the end, we may find that a little gratitude goes a long way. *Dr. Farzana Rahman is a consultant radiologist, University College Hospitals Trust London, and CEO and co-founder of Hexarad – a company that provides technology-driven solutions to boost radiology capacity.
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