Toolkit designed by nurses is approved by NICE
Safer Nursing Care Tool helps determine safe nurse staffing levels
A toolkit to help hospitals determine safe nurse staffing levels has been endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The Safer Nursing Care Tool (SNCT) was jointly designed more than 10 years ago by Professor Hilary Chapman, chief nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and her counterpart at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Professor Katherine Fenton.
The toolkit recommends appropriate staffing levels based on patients’ sickness and dependency. Hospitals can then consider other indicators alongside staffing including infection rates, complaints, pressure ulcers and falls to give a wider picture of quality and safe care on their wards.
We know that the right level of staffing, skills and experience is key to providing excellent care for patients, whose needs have changed significantly in recent years
Professor Chapman said: “We warmly welcome NICE’s endorsement of the SNCT. National recognition of the importance of safe and robust staffing is a great step forward and we are pleased to be able to share this tool in conjunction with NICE guidelines.
“SNCT provides the evidence-based information to guide and support nurses when determining staffing levels, enabling them to provide the best care that they can.”
The toolkit was developed using evidence from more than 1,000 best-practice wards, covering 119,000 interventions delivered to almost 2,800 patients over two years, and has been updated to reflect the changing needs of patients living longer and with more complex needs.
It was tested, endorsed and adopted in 2013 by the Shelford Group, a best practice sharing collaboration between 10 of the leading NHS teaching hospitals, and has now received the seal of approval from NICE, the body which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care.
The toolkit is regularly updated to reflect the changing needs of patients, and further developments are in progress to support NICE’s advice on how to determine nursing requirements on a shift-by-shift basis at ward level.
Professor Fenton said: “We know that the right level of staffing, skills and experience is key to providing excellent care for patients, whose needs have changed significantly in recent years. The Safer Nursing Care Tool reflects that change and gives nurses and patients the confidence that staffing is geared not just to numbers, but also dependency.”