Managers must get from behind their desks and listen to front line staff

摘要

As a nurse who was dismissed in 1990 after raising concerns about standards on the older people's care ward where I worked, I read the recommendations made by Robert Francis with great interest.His report identifies failings of nursing staff, but we must ask ourselves: what is the reason for those failings? To me the answer is clear: the nurses were not able to provide a good standard of care because there were not enough of them.I am all too well aware of how hard it is to meet even the most basic needs of patients when you are rushed off yourfeet. At Stafford Hospital, as was the case at Stepping Hill when I began working nights there 25 years ago, the management was out of touch and preferred to sit behind their desks rather than set foot on the ward to see what was going on.