Corridor nursing: why nurses are despairing and angry about the ‘new norm’ in the NHS

Nursing Standard readers reveal concerns over undignified care and patient safety breaches

• Almost two thirds of respondents to our survey said corridor care was ‘a daily occurrence’ in their workplace
• December saw an unprecedented number of emergency department attendances in England
• Staff report missed meal rounds and toileting for patients stuck in corridors, and a lack of privacy

Nurses have described how ‘corridor nursing’ has increasingly become the norm, as NHS hospitals struggle to cope with rising numbers of patients.

Of the almost 850 nurses across the UK who responded to a Nursing Standard survey, nearly two thirds (65%) said providing care for patients on trolleys in hospital corridors was a ‘daily occurrence’.

Our findings prompted one leading emergency nurse to warn that the practice could become the next major care scandal (see ‘The