When anyone can be called ‘nurse’, patient care and profession’s self-esteem are at risk
Why a new petition is calling for the term ‘nurse’ to be protected in law, once and for all
29 Jun 2021
Alison Leary
Low-paid ‘on-the-job’ nursing student training will take the profession backwards
Paid clinical placements are no cure-all for student debt and staff shortages
01 Jul 2020
Understanding the demand and unmet need for psychological cancer care in the community
Psychological care for people with cancer and their carers is not meeting demand
28 Feb 2020
Uncovering the hidden workload involved in providing cancer care in the community
Challenges that primary care and community staff experience in caring for people with cancer
12 Feb 2020
Turning data into useful knowledge to improve patient care
Making decisions based on poor data, a concept known as ‘garbage in, garbage out’, unfortunately remains part of healthcare today, according to Alison Leary
26 Apr 2018
Developing the next generation of specialist cancer nurses
There are concerns about the future specialist cancer nursing workforce, and its ability to meet the growing need for cancer care. There are few opportunities to progress into specialist nursing roles that offer support and development, and there is no national or strategic framework. One group of acute NHS trusts has addressed this by offering a development programme for nurses that includes mentorship and learning opportunities, in partnership with a specialist cancer trust. This article reports the evaluation of the programme, which will be rolled out across north east and central London as a practical solution to the problems associated with developing specialist nurses in cancer care.
07 Nov 2017
Developing a caseload model to reflect the complexity of district and community nursing
A study by the England Centre for Practice Development proposes to develop and evaluate an optimum caseload model for district and community nursing, building on two rounds of funded pilot research in the south east of England using the Cassandra Matrix TM . It addresses national calls for a strategic capacity-and-demand model to measure and reflect the multidimensional complexity of the community nursing workload, maximising the potential of the workforce to meet the needs of clients with increasingly complex comorbidities and interdependencies. It also addresses the ambitions of the NHS Five Year Forward View to enable planned growth of the workforce for the future.
28 Aug 2015
Dimensions of clinical nurse specialist work in the UK
Aim To model the work of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) in the UK. Method This article examines data mined as part of a national project. The Pandora™ database was initially collected on a Microsoft™ Office Access database and subsequently, a Structured Query Language database in several iterations from June 2006 to September 2008. Pandora™ recorded CNS activity as a series of events with eight dimensions to each event. Data from this were mined to examine the complexity of CNS work. Result s This study represents the work of 463 CNSs over 2,778 days in England, Scotland and Wales. Clinical work, including physical assessment, referral, symptom control and ‘rescue’ work, accounted for a large part of the CNS’s role. Administration was the second highest workload, with about half of these administrative tasks identified as being suitable for secretarial staff to undertake. Research, education and consultation accounted for less time. A significant proportion of the nurses’ clinical work is undertaken by telephone. Conclusion CNSs in this study spent much of their time doing complex clinical work. Payment by Results (Department of Health 2006) should recognise the work undertaken by CNSs, particularly that done on the telephone. Complex clinical work by CNSs takes place in many different contexts using a wide range of interventions. The role of the CNS is complex and diverse, making comparisons of it difficult. More research needs to be done in relation to quality, safety and efficiency.
06 Jan 2009
Dimensions of clinical nurse specialist work in the UK
Aim To model the work of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) in the UK. Method This article examines data mined as part of a national project. The Pandora™ database was initially collected on a Microsoft™ Office Access database and subsequently, a Structured Query Language database in several iterations from June 2006 to September 2008. Pandora™ recorded CNS activity as a series of events with eight dimensions to each event. Data from this were mined to examine the complexity of CNS work. Results This study represents the work of 463 CNSs over 2,778 days in England, Scotland and Wales. Clinical work, including physical assessment, referral, symptom control and ‘rescue’ work, accounted for a large part of the CNS’s role. Administration was the second highest workload, with about half of these administrative tasks identified as being suitable for secretarial staff to undertake. Research, education and consultation accounted for less time. A significant proportion of the nurses’ clinical work is undertaken by telephone. Conclusion CNSs in this study spent much of their time doing complex clinical work Payment by Results ( Department of Health 2006 ) should recognise the work undertaken by CNSs, particularly that done on the telephone. Complex clinical work by CNSs takes place in many different contexts using a wide range of interventions. The role of the CNS is complex and diverse, making comparisons of it difficult. More research needs to be done in relation to quality, safety and efficiency.
17 Dec 2008
An analysis of lung cancer clinical nurse specialist workload and value
In today’s healthcare system there is much controversy regarding the role and value of clinical nurse specialists. This article describes a mixed-method approach to the workload of lung cancer clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), and translates this into financial value. It calculates, for example, that these specialists work an average of 316.8 hours unpaid overtime each per year, and estimates on the basis of the data gathered that, as a group, CNSs in England contribute 71,280 hours of unpaid overtime – or £1,475,496 – to the health economy annually. The data underline the effectiveness of care these nurse specialists give to patients with lung cancer and their value to their trusts. abstract
01 Dec 2008
Mapping the English cancer clinical nurse specialist workforce
The role and function of the cancer clinical nurse specialist (CNS) has been the subject of increasing debate in recent years as NHS trusts seek to control their finances. Quantitative data on the cancer CNS workforce across England is sparse. This article examines the number and distribution of cancer CNSs working in England in terms of cancer pathology and geography to determine whether there are any disparities between cancer sites and cancer networks. It finds that the number of CNSs is not consistent with the incidence of cancers across English cancer networks. There appears to be a lower ratio of urological and lung cancer CNS compared with other pathologies.
01 Apr 2008