New study shows 'workforce restructuring' to be threat to patient safety

A new report published by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions provides stark evidence that ill-considered experiments in the delivery of patient care can do real harm.

Valuing Patient Safety: Responsible Workforce Design, shows how heavy workloads, excessive overtime and increases in injuries and illness often result from executive decisions to change staff mix and staffing levels and other strategies to achieve administrative cost-cutting goals.

The study shows that even small changes can cause a domino effect that directly impacts nursing care delivery and patient care.

Highlighting changes at the National Health Service in England and drawing on the 2013 Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry led by Robert Francis, Q.C., into unnecessary deaths, patient injuries and gross neglect resulting from prioritizing budgets over quality patient care, the report also shows that as workloads rise, patients’ quality of care inevitably declines.

“As detailed in Valuing Patient Safety, the NHS England tragedy is a dire warning to Canada on the risks of pursuing a similar path,” said CFNU President Linda Silas.

“As nurses, we must act to protect our patients and reverse the dangerous trends in health care,” she added. “It is up to us, as health care professionals, to speak up for patients, and make our voices heard so that everyone knows what is at stake.

Valuing Patient Safety argues that patients must be at the forefront of any redesign decisions. This means patient priority care needs must be properly assessed using real time tools, based on factors such as acuity, stability and complexity.

Once patient needs are determined, nurses and their managers should base staffing assignments on the best fit between patient needs and nurse competencies.

Dr. Maura MacPhee, the report’s author and Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing, argued it is “vitally important that our health care system become more open, transparent and accountable so that health care providers, patients, their families, and the public have the information they need to influence and engage proactively with decision makers.”

CFNU, of which United Nurses of Alberta is a member, represents close to 200,000 nurses and student nurses throughout Canada. UNA represents approximately 30,000 Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses and allied health care workers in Alberta.

Click here to read the full report.