UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE - SAFER STAFFING AND HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS RESEARCH

Members of the Research Team with Minister Simon Harris, Minister of Health on the launch of the Research Report on the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing

Healthcare Workforce is a research group led by Professor Jonathan Drennan, established to test the implementation of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill-Mix in a variety of settings. The work has extended to identifying evidence- based approaches to improving the working environment for healthcare staff and, working with our healthcare partners, to put these approaches in place and measure the outcomes for both staff and patients with a rigorous programme of research.

On the 21 st March 2019, the College of Medicine and Health, UCC hosted the first inaugural Professorial Lecture which was delivered by Professor Jonathan Drennan. Pictured (L-R) : Professors Helen Whelton, Corina Naughton, Jonathan Drennan, Eileen Savage, Josephine Hegarty

Outputs include:

• A Programme of Research on Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix which is Research funded by the Health Research Board and the Department of Health. The Department of Health has published a document which makes a number of recommendations to ensure that the staffing of hospitals is safe and effective; that is to ensure the right number of nurses are in the right place at the right time and with the right skills to deliver care. This research seeks to measure the extent to which the recommendations in this report impact on patients and staff in a variety of settings. The research also examines how much the recommendations cost to implement. Researchers measure a number of factors that we know are related to nurse staffing. These include missed care, which is looking at work that nurses may not have had time to complete, as well as how satisfied patients are with their care.

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