Having the courage to care-lessons learnt after Mid Staffordshire

摘要

Good nurses need to work with their 'hearts and heads'. They should be thoughtful as well as respectful practitioners who can deal with the complex and specialist needs of patients, but who also have advanced interpersonal and team-working skills to enable them to work with and support others. Nowhere is this more important than in the care of older people. It was the frail and vulnerable who were most failed by the system and by nurses in Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust in the period covered by the Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (Department of Health, 2013).