Implementation, impact & costs of policies for safe staffing
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Implementation, impact and costs of policies for safe staffing in acute trusts
IRAS ID
204589
Contact name
Jane Ball
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The Francis Inquiry highlighted the lack of evidence-based decisions on nurse staffing as a factor contributing to poor care and higher death rates at Mid-Staffordshire. He recommended that the research evidence be used by NICE (the National Institute For Health and Care Excellence) to develop guidance on safe nurse staffing levels. Guidance for acute adult wards was published in 2014. NICE also endorsed the Safer Nursing Care Tool (SNCT), which estimates nursing staff requirements for acute hospital wards by assigning patients to one of five categories, based on how ill they are and the typical time taken to care for similar patients (known as ‘dependency’).
Our study will examine implementation of safe staffing policies in the NHS. We will undertake a national survey to identify how implementation of safe staffing approaches have varied. At four case study sites we will examine implementation in more depth, using economic and qualitative methods. We will look at how patients’ need for nursing care, as measured by the SNCT, varies from day to day and compare it to actual staffing, and explore the costs and consequences of different approaches.REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0381
Date of REC Opinion
3 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion