WORK FORCE I S SUE S
midwives not feeling empowered.10 Anyone who has worked in nursing or midwifery will be familiar with all the reported factors which contribute to stress and intention to leave, and they have been written about and felt for many generations of workers to a greater or lesser degree. The context, however, of COVID-19 and the extremes of workplace stress and burnout, are new elements and are obviously massive and critical to the view collectively of the staff who experienced it. The consequences are mental and physical illness in those who suffer the situations above. The report details three different core work needs which must be met in order to displace the negative effects and can lead to thriving and flourishing at work. These include ‘autonomy’ – the need to have control over our work lives, and to be able to act consistently with our work and life values. ‘Belonging’ is the need to be connected to, cared for and caring of others around us in the workplace, and to feel valued, respected and supported. ‘Contribution’ is the need to experience effectiveness in what we do and deliver valued outcomes, such as high-quality care. Each of the three aspects of desirable workplace factors (ABC) have an enormous impact on workplace engagement of nurses and midwives. They deserve a second article in this journal to give real context to the recommendations.
Conclusion
The author has worked in roles and hospitals where the culture of support and empowerment enabled a great feeling of
NOVEMBER 2020
motivation for the job, an eagerness to develop professionally and to make change to ensure that patient care was the best it could possibly be. Alternatively, I have also worked where elements of bullying and harassment were a constant feature with poor workplace allocations, denial of rota requests and holiday and many further difficult situations. Did I want to go to work every day? Did I want to stay later than I was scheduled to leave work? Did I want to put huge effort into making patient care better in that hospital? Shamefully, I wanted to leave as soon as possible. After a single week in that horrible workplace culture, I knew I had made a mistake in taking the job. I started to look for a different role immediately. I reported the issues at my exit interview, but I doubt that anything was ever tackled; it was deep seated. Let us not enable the bullies of today and the context of excessive stress and workload continue. We need the staff of all grades to be happy and safe in their work in order to provide the best quality of care. That is hard enough.
CSJ
References 1 The King’s Fund. London 2020 The courage of compassion. Accessed at
https://www.kingsfund.
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2 West M, Coia D (2019). Caring for doctors, caring for patients. How to transform UK healthcare environments to support doctors and medical students to care for patients. London: General Medical Council. Accessed at:
www.gmc-uk.org/-/ media/documents/caring-for-doctors-caring-for- patients_pdf-80706341.pdf
3 West M, Dawson J, Kaur M (2015). Making the difference: diversity and inclusion in the NHS. London: The King’s Fund. Accessed at: www.
kingsfund.org.uk/publications/making-difference- diversity-inclusion-nhs
4 National Audit Office. 2020 The NHS nursing workforce. Accessed at
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5 Maybin J, Charles A, Honeyman M (2016). Understanding quality in district nursing services: learning from patients, carers and staff. London: The King’s Fund. Accessed at:
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6 Goodare P (2017). ‘Literature review: why do we continue to lose our nurses?’ Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol 34, no 4, pp 50–56. Accessed at:
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7 Building a better future for Nursing: RCN members have their say
https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional- development/publications/rcn-builiding-a-better- future-covid-pub-009366
8 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2020a). Leavers’ survey 2019: why do people leave the NMC register? London: Nursing and Midwifery Council. Accessed at:
www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/ nmc-register/march-2020/nmc-leavers- survey-2019.pdf
9 Leary A, Punshon G, Maclaine K, Radford M, Trevatt P, Shanley O (2019). ‘Nursing pay by gender distribution in the UK – does the Glass Escalator still exist?’ International Journal of Nursing Studies, vol 93, pp 21–9. Accessed at:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S002074891930046X?via%3Dihub
10 Wilson JL (2016). ‘An exploration of bullying behaviours in nursing: a review of the literature’. British Journal of Nursing, vol 25, no 6, pp 303–6.
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