• QUALITY CARE NEEDS MORE NURSES

QUALITY CARE NEEDS MORE NURSES
Nurses do a number of tasks in the course of their work. However, much of their time is spent on non-nursing tasks. This is not conducive to quality patient care. Recent surveys done in the UK for instance, show that patients had confidence and trust in nurses.

A report in the Nursing Standard, published by the Royal College of Nursing stated that a survey of nearly 300 000 patients by the Commission for Health and Improvement found the following:

• Three (3) in four (4) patients had confidence and trust in nurses who cared for them in hospital, but one (I) in five (5) said nurses talked in front of them as if they were not there.
• Eleven (11) thought there were never enough nurses on duty.
• A further thirty one (31) thought that there were at times, not enough nurses on duty.

The S.A. government indicated in 2003 that it was aware that there was an estimated 31 000 nursing staff shortage in the public sector alone, a situation which meant that one nurse does the work of more than one person. Such a situation can only lead to high risks and potential medico-legal hazards. It can be argued, quite convincingly, that there is a link between the critical nursing staff shortages in the country, and the increasing number of cases that have appeared before the Professional Conduct Committee of the SA Nursing Council in the past year or so.

 

• EXTRA WORK LOAD HURTS
• NO TOOLS NO QUALITY CARE
• MORE NURSES = BETTER CARE

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