There’s a national shortage of registered nurses in the UK. Nowhere is this shortage felt more than is the care sector.
We’re faced with a rapidly growing older population, often with complex health needs. But without the nursing staff what will this mean for the residents?
In the last 30 years, the number of people aged 90 and over has almost tripled. The number of people living with complex health needs in England is predicted to rise by one million people over the next 10 years. These numbers are staggering, and it’s an issue that we can’t ignore.
When it’s no longer possible for families to care for loved ones in their own home they need to know that the care home they choose will keep them safe, clean, nourished, stimulated, and that they will be treated with dignity and respect. It’s what everyone wants and deserves for the person they love and for ourselves when the time comes.
There are lots of care homes with exceptional standards of care and dedicated caring staff - but we know that with a growing demand for nursing care, employers are struggling to recruit and keep registered nurses. In response to what care sector organisations told us about the difficulties they face, the Department of Health (DH) set up the Care Sector Nursing Taskforce.
Care Sector Nursing Taskforce
Taskforce members include the Royal College of Nursing, Care England, the National Care Forum and the DH Independent Sector Advisory Forum, Health Education England, Skills for Care, the Registered Nursing Home Association and the University of Leeds . NHS England and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services are also engaged in this work.
The Taskforce has developed a programme of work to help make sure that care homes have enough staff with the right skills to deliver high-quality care to residents. Some of this work includes improving the image of nursing in the care sector, developing career pathways, improving access to professional development opportunities and developing new and innovative ways of working.
Care England and the Nursing Times are launching several initiatives this Spring including an app to support nurses in the care sector with their clinical practice and professional development and a new digital platform to promote nursing in the care sector. Skills for Care and the National Care Forum will also be publishing good practice case studies on a number of topics related to the recruitment, retention and professional development of nurses in the care sector.
There are also plans to develop e-Learning for Health to make it easier for care sector staff to access.
The Foundation of Nursing Studies ran a number of successful workshops between January and March on our behalf to help nurses in the care sector to prepare for revalidation requirements. The feedback from the workshops held so far has been positive.
These projects, together with others still in the early stages of development, will help to support the recruitment, retention and development of nurses in the care sector.
These are just a few of the initiatives that have been started by the Taskforce. In the next few months I’ll be blogging about these in more detail.
You can also follow me on Twitter to keep up to date with developments and join in the conversation.