Posted 22 December 2017 - 09:00
Posted 22 December 2017 - 09:00
Features
Top 15: The most popular articles of 2017
Nursing Standard
The fight for fair pay, radical changes to education and a study which revealed thousands of unregistered staff were using the word ‘nurse’ in their job titles were just some of the stories that made the headlines in 2017.
Here we look back at the stories that have been most popular with our readers in the year that Nursing Standard celebrated its 30th anniversary.
1. Mentors could be replaced as part of ‘radical’ education overhaul
Mentors for nursing students could be replaced with supervisors and assessors as part of the ‘radical’ overhaul of nurse education by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, it was revealed in May.
2. If your job title says 'nurse', you should be a nurse
Hospitals have been urged to review staff job titles after a study found that unregistered support workers were practising in the NHS with job titles that describe them as nurses with advanced skills.
3. NMC ruling could encourage futile CPR
The NMC's decision to caution a nurse for not attempting to resuscitate an elderly nursing home resident who had no signs of life alarmed nurses and doctors, who feared it would encourage defensive practice.
4. NMC caution order for nurse who failed to perform CPR
A nurse admitted misconduct after failing to attempt to resuscitate a care home resident she believed was dead. An NMC committee said the nurse’s actions fell short of what would be expected of a registered nurse.
5. NHS nurses angry about agency ban
Nurses reacted with anger in March after learning they could no longer take on agency work if they were substantively employed by an NHS trust under proposed measures by NHS Improvement. The decision has since been overruled.
6. Fast-track 'Nurse First' programme revealed
A new two year fast-track ‘Nurse First’ programme aimed at recruiting high-achieving graduates into a career in nursing and addressing the workforce crisis was announced by NHS England.
7. Nurse struck off after falsely claiming to be a leading surgeon
A theatre nurse who lied to his wife and friends for seven years about being a leading orthopaedic surgeon has been struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.
8. Wrong blood type nurse given suspended sentence
A nurse who gave a patient who later died the wrong type of blood has been given a suspended prison sentence.
9. U-turn over agency ban
The RCN is celebrated a ‘u-turn’ by NHS Improvement (NHSI) over plans to prevent nurses working for an agency if they have a substantive contract.
10. NMC reveals reasons why nurses are referred to regulator
Only one in five referrals to fitness to practise proceedings concern patient care, data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council revealed. The statistics, published in the annual fitness to practise report, follow a new approach to recording the reasons for referrals.
11. Tribunal hearing for nurse sacked after offering to pray for patient
Sister Sarah Kuteh, the nurse who was sacked for offering to pray for a patient, appeared before an employment tribunal.
12. 'I don't think nurse pay is enough,' says Jeremy Hunt
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said in March that he 'dearly' wanted to increase nurse pay – but was restricted by limited resources and other pressures on the NHS.
13. HCA fined for accessing medical records on family and colleagues
NHS staff were reminded of the potentially serious consequences of prying into patients’ records without a valid reason after a healthcare assistant secretly accessed medical information on 29 people.
14. Exclusive: Newly qualified nurses should have limited prescribing powers, draft NMC plans reveal
Graduating nurses in the UK will be given limited prescribing powers, according to Nursing and Midwifery Council's draft education plans as seen by Nursing Standard.
15. Call for 'proper pay rises', as Jeremy Hunt announces end to nurses' pay cap
Health leaders have demanded 'proper pay rises', after Jeremy Hunt told MPs the 1% pay cap for NHS staff had been 'scrapped' in October.
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