Boards explaining how many staff are on duty and who the ward manager is have been put up across the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust’s hospitals. These have been implemented to support information requirements in relation to safer staffing levels and the National Safer Staffing Standards.

The ward boards, a staff idea put forward by the senior nursing team, have been installed to provide a visible and honest view of staffing levels for patients, carers, visitors, and nurses. The boards display a wealth of information about who is in charge of the ward and the number of registered nurses and healthcare assistants on the morning, afternoon-evening and night shifts, of that day. The boards are updated by the night shift staff for the next morning so that any staff changes can be addressed.

Louise Milligan, the Ward Manager for Ward 18 at Good Hope Hospital, said, “the boards have been up for several months and it has made it easier for me and my staff to see at a glance if we have sufficient nurses and HCAs on duty and any shortfalls. It also lists how many students are on the ward and those nurses that are supernumerary, being trained.”

The boards are helping patients and visitors with their expectation of care and support. They are able to know immediately who the nurse-in-charge is and tend to be more understanding if they know that there are less staff on than planned and what the wards have done to support this.  This visibility is helping to reassure patients and carers and they are more understanding of issues that do sometimes arise on wards.

Each ward has an established number of staff on duty, however, nurse requirements can fluctuate depending on the how well and independent patients are, so moving staff around is vital for quality care, the safety of patients and the efficient running of a busy ward.

The ward boards are working in tandem with SafeCare, an electronic live system that calculates a live measure of the staffing need, reliant on the dependency of the patient. It will help ward managers be even more accurate and flexible in managing staffing levels and be based on actual need, not standard levels.

Installed in some wards at Solihull earlier this year, SafeCare is planned for Heartlands Hospital in the New Year, followed by Good Hope in the spring.

The staffing boards, along with SafeCare are great visual aids and prompts for all the staff working on the wards, to take responsibility for safe staffing level and encourage nurses and HCAs to contribute and have an open conversation on how the ward is staffed.