Lack of healthcare professionals causes NHS to rely on underqualified staff

The Healthcare Foundation have reported that the NHS are severely understaffed when it comes to fully qualified nurses. Although numbers for overseas recruitment are climbing, we are still left with a shocking number of open vacancies waiting to be filled. Currently a shocking 33,000 nurses leave the profession every year and at least 49% of healthcare professionals consider leaving the healthcare industry. We question: why are the figures rising? How is this shaping our NHS? What can we do to change?

Underqualified professionals providing care

Due to nurses being in such short supply clinics, hospitals and nursing homes are finding themselves placing patients at risk by allocating tasks to underqualified staff members. In order to provide care to patients; healthcare assistants and nursing assistants have been used to help with duties only qualified nurses would have normally carried out in a sufficiently staffed premises. With over 400,000 healthcare assistants and clinical support workers in the UK, the NHS are relying on these professionals to deliver care in the current staffing crisis.

Although traditionally healthcare assistants have been known to provide care related to personal attention such as; bandage changes, washing and feeding; they are now also required to take on further tasks more related to degree educated nurses and clinicians.

Not only do we see the strain placed on healthcare providers within hospitals and support homes; this epidemic is reaching primary care services such as GP clinics with Pharmacists now being used frequently to diagnose and treat cases that can not be seen by a qualified GP. The rise in pharmacists delivering primary care services has increased by more than 40%.

How does this affect patients in the long run?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence state that healthcare assistants must work under professional supervision, though many have reported that this doesn’t happen due to the lack of staff. Recent comments made to the BBC say “There’s not enough training, and no time to train even if we wanted to.”

With shocking reports telling of stories where medication has been given to the wrong patients, staff having to move patients on their own and HCA’s even running clinics now is the time to act.

What does NICE state HCAs can cover?

-There should be sufficient designated registered nurses who are experienced and trained to determine on-the-day nursing requirements

-Staffing requirements should consider if there are enough registered nurses available to support and supervise health care assistants

-HCAs should only be given tasks and duties within their scope of competence

-HCAs should not be used to plug gaps in nursing shifts

-The type of duties performed by HCAs include washing and dressing, toileting and bed making

Why are nurses leaving the profession?

The main cause of number dropping is burnout. 62% of nurses felt regularly burnout in their jobs leaving them exhausted yet still expected to continue with their duties. Many nurses believe that burnout directly affects the way they practice and they simply cannot continue to work knowing this is directly affecting patient care.

With 40% of nurses feeling they have less free time now than they did two years ago, it is clear the strain on nurses is becoming too much meaning they feel they cannot continue within the profession. It is now predicted that by 2022 there will be a shortage of 1.2 million registered nurses and this is directly affected by the burnout felt by nurses across the UK.

A lot of healthcare professionals have now reported that they do not feel respected within their job and bullying within the workplace is still very much an issue. 62% of nurses feel other staff do not respect them leading to an unhappy working environment and incidentally a search for a new career.

Reasons for the loss of staff:

-Graduate attrition

-Poor staffing ratios

-Lack of compassion

-Increased job injuries

How we can battle the loss of healthcare professionals?

In the UK many younger nurses leave the NHS with over 17,207 under 40-year olds leaving the profession. How can we help the current crisis and make healthcare safer? The NHS already have a retention plan in place, but there is more we can do to help with the battle.

We have seen a large influx in the number of clinicians working within the NHS from overseas. The UK have been actively recruiting from non-EU countries over the last two years showing rising number of foreign nurses joining the register in 2019. Unfortunately, this is not to say that all will stay within our health service and the NHS does still continue to struggle to keep clinicians in place.

Political party leaders have made promises with regards to recruitment during the run up to the election. With the conservatives looking to add 19,000 more trained nurses to the NHS if elected. Through the introduction of a maintenance grant to cover the living costs while studying, they are hoping to attract more individuals into nursing courses at universities across the UK. By raising the quality of clinical placements, they wish to encourage students to complete their courses and fulfil their dream in healthcare. Importantly there is talk of gaining another 5000 nurses through apprenticeships schemes, going back to an old trusted method which was previously scrapped when degrees were made a requirement. These methods could indeed help take the burden of care off HCAs who are underqualified.

What can you do?

When you find yourself sort of staff, desperate to cover annual leave, sickness and general absence let AppLocum be the guiding light to a fully staffed clinic. Locums can be the way to help offload burdens and pressures felt by salaried members of staff and in turn help with retention and job satisfaction. If you find your clinics running low on qualified members of staff, don’t turn to underqualified healthcare professionals. Register with AppLocum today to give your patients the service they deserve.