Public Board papers 31.03.22

activity remain unpredictable however all OCCU staff have shown to be responsive and resilient. I have started to work on developing our acuity scoring tool to ensure that we are capturing that data more efficiently and we can report this information in better format with support from IT. We continue to struggle on occasions to keep our band 6 staff supernumerary when coordinating the shift; this is as a result of the skill mix (new starters) and increased short- term sickness. The band 6 nurses on OCCU continue to work extremely hard and display excellent leadership skills despite staffing challenges. I’m hopeful that in the next 6 months as skill mix improves and staff sickness stabilises, we can focus on their development specifically. I recognise that we must prioritise well-being following a very challenging 2 years; we have invited the GM Resilience Hub into the Christie to meet with all the team and discuss the type of support that is available. In the off duty for April, we are going to accommodate the first restorative supervision session for our band 6 nurses, I’m hoping this will develop into a rolling programme and will normalise support in practice. I’m hoping to be able to allocate more time to develop my Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) role over the next 6 months. The hard work of the OCCU nursing team continues to be recognised and supported by our OCCU MDT. There is recognition of how hard staff work, the ‘can do’ attitude and excellent care provided. Externally we received great feedback through peer review with the Greater Manchester Critical Care Network in September 2021. We always have lots of lovely feedback from our patients and relatives though thank you messages. We have continued to support through excellent communication skills despite visiting restrictions and we have ensured families are supported and together at the right times. Conclusions The past 6 months have been challenging for nursing staff. It is apparent from this report that the in-patient senior nurses have supported staff throughout this period and have demonstrated exemplary teamwork when coordinating nurse:patient ratios across the trust to keep our patients safe. The trust has supported the in-patient wards to review nursing establishments and have taken positive steps to increase nursing and HCA establishments where required. The teams have good recruitment plans in place with great success in recruiting nursing students who have had Christie placements. The clinical divisions have also been supported to recruit additional and new supportive roles i.e., an increase in the Clinical Practice Facilitator posts, night practitioner posts, additional Tissue Viability Nurse support post. This has ensured additional educational and clinical support within the inpatient wards. Throughout the pandemic major incident there has been effective use of the daily sitrep escalation processes, to ensure a safe care environment for patients Patients’ experience as an in-patient remained consistently high throughout during this period. The in-patient wards continue to implement biosecurity and infection prevention measures during this 6 month period and continue to utilise the safer nursing care acuity tool together with their clinical judgement to ensure the nursing establishments continue to align with the needs of the patients. This review confirms that the trust’s nurse leaders feel confident that the staffing establishment is safe and effective.

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