Nursing & Midwifery: Workload & Workforce: Planning Project
Foreword by the Chair of the Steering Group
The nursing and midwifery workforce is vital to the delivery of effective care to the people of Scotland. Nurses and midwives are 'front-line' practitioners, delivering services designed to meet people's health and healthcare needs across the age spectrum and in all communities of Scotland.
Recruiting and retaining nurses and midwives in the NHSScotland workforce has consequently been identified as a priority area by the Scottish Executive. Many local and national initiatives have been launched to boost recruitment and retention, spearheaded by the Facing the Future initiative. Facing the Future is putting in place the infrastructure needed to ensure that NHSScotland has the right quality and quantity of nurses and midwives to meet the growing demands of the population.
The Audit Scotland report Planning Ward Nursing - Legacy or Design?, published in December 2002, suggested a need for greater scrutiny of current practice in nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning. The report, which set out a number of actions for NHSScotland systems to improve the planning and deployment of the nursing and midwifery workforce, acted as a catalyst for the Facing the Future group to commission the project described in this report.
The project has looked in considerable detail at how the workforce is currently planned and deployed in most areas of NHSScotland. It highlights good practice, but also reveals areas that would benefit from greater co-ordination and the adoption of a systematic approach. Recommendations for action at national, regional and local level set out how nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning should be taken forward in the future.
The recommendations lay the foundation for the development of a more systematic and standardised approach to nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning to succeed the current ad hoc situation. They define clear accountability for delivery and offer scope for key staff, such as senior charge nurses, to develop their knowledge and understanding to help them use workforce and workload planning tools effectively. This should also enable them, over time, to compare with peers in similar specialties in different areas of the country.
The project has been conceived and completed in a short period of time. My thanks go to all those who participated, particularly Pauline Milne, Project Manager, the Steering Group, which so ably supported her, and the Information and Statistics Division, which has provided vital skills in data analysis. Ultimately, our endeavours have been focused on getting better value for the money spent on nursing and midwifery services, better working conditions for nurses and midwives throughout Scotland and, most important, better quality of care and outcomes for patients and the general public.
Gerry Marr
Chair of the Steering Group