I just wanted to let you know that you make all the difference.

2013 was a very busy year for NHS Professionals with many NHS trusts increasing in their requests for additional hours. With your help, we managed to fill 10% more hours in 2013 than we did in 2012.

NHS Trusts are facing many extra pressures at the moment and many are struggling to fill their vacancies. I wanted to reassure you that every hour you work makes a difference, helping to maintain patient safety and reduce pressure on busy wards.

Thank you from all of us at NHS Professionals.

Let me take this opportunity to wish all of our bank workers a very happy New Year and a prosperous 2014.

Stephen Dangerfield

Introduction – From Anne O’Brien, NHS Professionals’ Director of Clinical Governance & Operations

Many of you will have read over the last few months, indeed years, the damning stories of poor care, treatment and neglect of the patients reported at Stafford Hospital. While NHS Professionals does not provide flexible workers to this Trust, there are a number of issues that we can all learn from, things we need to understand and changes we need to make. A number of you will no doubt have received information on the Francis Report from your Trusts. However, as the biggest supplier of temporary staff to the NHS, it is important that we provide an overview for all our flexible workers.

NHS Professionals is committed to continuous improvement and, over the past five years, has made many changes to both how it operates and how it provides its services to Trusts. Those of you who have been with us for some time will have seen these improvements. As with all things there is still room for us all to improve and learn, so I will be setting out some of the plans that NHS Professionals has, what is already available, as well as what you can do to ensure we help Trusts deliver the best care possible to patients, service users, their carers and families.

Background

What is the Francis report?

On the 15th September 2009, an independent inquiry was launched into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009. The inquiry was chaired by Robert Francis QC and his final report was published in February 2010. The report concluded that patients were routinely neglected by the Trust, which was preoccupied with cost cutting, targets and processes, and which lost sight of its fundamental responsibility to provide safe care.

The evidence gathered by the inquiry shows clearly that, for many patients, the most basic elements of care were neglected. It found that a chronic shortage of staff, particularly nursing staff, was largely responsible for the substandard care. Morale at the Trust was low, and while many staff did their best in difficult circumstances, others showed a disturbing lack of compassion towards their patients. Staff who spoke out felt ignored and there is strong evidence that many were deterred from doing so through fear and bullying.

Despite the findings of the inquiry, Robert Francis QC concluded that Stafford Hospital should not be closed. He believed that while there is still much work required at the Trust, the new executive team had made a successful start in improving the safety and quality of care it provides. A public inquiry was then launched and a subsequent report was published in February 2013 with 290 recommendations.

How does this affect me? 

• Putting Patients First
You should always demonstrate care and compassion and guarantee dignity to all patients.

• Openness, transparency and candour
You should be honest, open and truthful in all dealings with patients and the public. Organisational and personal interests must never outweigh that duty.

• Caring for the elderly
You should work as part of the team and support your colleagues when on an assignment to ensure patients receive the required level of care and attention.

What is NHS Professionals doing to implement recommendations from the Francis Report?

I understand that our rigorous processes can be a cause for some frustration from time-to-time; however you will be pleased to learn that the following initiatives mean that our flexible workers are proven to meet the required standard to provide care.

• Knowledge Based Assessment as part of the recruitment process for 27 staff roles, including Registered Nurse, Registered Midwife, Care Support Workers and Allied Health Professionals, which include questions relating to values, dignity and respect;
• Flexible Worker Code of Behaviour, which includes the values of being caring, reliable and professional;
• E-learning modules to support Flexible Worker development including Compassion and Dignity for All, Early Warning Systems to recognise the deteriorating patient, Clinical observations and their interpretation and Mental Health Observations
• Performance Evaluation for all staff groups asking for feedback on the performance of a flexible worker on a particular shift based on the Knowledge and Skills Framework;
• Orientation schedule for flexible workers to ensure they receive up to date information relating to a ward area when they are new to the environment;
• Placement Expectation Guidelines for Client Trusts so that each service area can know what to expect from an NHS Professionals Flexible Worker.

By Karen Barraclough, Senior Nurse / Head of Governance at NHS Professionals

Three years ago, Dr Kate Granger, an elderly care physician, was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal cancer. During her time in hospital, she noticed there was an extreme lack of compassion and consideration for patients on some of the wards. The first thing that struck her was the absence of an introduction from her carers. As Kate revealed at the NHS Confederation Conference at the beginning of June, the staff delivering her care repeatedly referred to her as ‘bed number seven’. As you can imagine, this was extremely de-humanising and unsettling, especially as she was already in a vulnerable position as a hospital patient.

Kate was frustrated by the way she was treated, but instead of filing a complaint, she decided to do something positive to remind and encourage healthcare staff about the importance of introductions. With her husband’s support, Kate launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #hellomynameis. It soon became clear that her experience was not an unusual one as the campaign has made more than 26 million web impressions in ten months and has had countless people sharing stories and photos of their own experiences. People from all over the country were agreeing that small gestures such as welcoming introductions can make a massive difference to the confidence they have in their healthcare team. This simple idea certainly hit a nerve as Kate was flooded with messages of support from people across health and social care who have promoted the idea in their own workplaces.

NHS Professionals recognises the importance of treating patients as you would want to be treated yourself. We already encourage our workers to adhere to the 6C’s – care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment and we are now also particularly keen to promote the #hellomynameis campaign to demonstrate our commitment to delivering compassionate care.

Introducing yourself to your patients only takes a second and doesn’t cost anything, but to the patient it can make their hospital stay less frightening and really improve their experience. So go on – why not start every patient interaction today with ‘hello, my name is…”

At NHS Professionals we understand that your flexible hours of work can fall at any time around-the-clock, and recently, your feedback has suggested that our service could be further improved by increasing the operating hours of our National Service Centre.

That’s why we’ve invested in making our Service Centre available to you any time of the day, any day of the week.

Calls to our Service Centre are still charged at local rate from mobiles or landlines, any time you decide to call and you can still call us on 03332 407 552.

We hope you’ll find this change makes staying in touch, easier.

We wouldn’t want you to lose your remaining annual leave, so please ensure you book and take it before the 31st December 2014.

However, if you have any part day leave that you have not been able to take during December 2014, you must remember to book and take these by 31st January 2015, as we don’t want you to lose all those extra hours you built up.

And finally, please remember to release timesheets weekly to ensure that we received an accurate calculation of the hours that you have built up. This is especially important towards the end of the annual leave year to ensure that you take any outstanding leave before the 31st December.

If you have any queries regarding holiday bookings, then please contact the Holiday Pay team at holidaypay@nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk

As the holiday season approaches, and the year is quickly drawing to a close, NHS Professionals thought the time was right to say to you all thank you for your contribution to the NHS during the year and we wish you a prosperous new year.

As the festive season is fast approaching, please be aware of the important dates you’ll need to make a note of.

Pay dates
• Friday 19th December
• Wednesday 24th December
• Friday 2nd January
• Friday 9th January

Deadline for releasing timesheets
• Shifts worked up to and released by midnight on Wednesday 10th December will be paid on Friday 19th December
• Shifts worked up to and released by midnight on Tuesday 16th December will be paid on Wednesday 24th December
• Shifts worked up to and released by midnight on Monday 22nd Decemberr will be paid on Friday 2nd January
• Shifts worked up to and released by midnight on Wednesday 31st December will be paid on Friday 9th January

Thanks to recent development you can now contact the National Service Centre 24 hours 7 days a week, all year around including holidays.

We are pleased to announce that NHS Staff Council has accepted the pay offer from the Government.

NHSP will comply with this agreement and adjust pay rates to be in line with Agenda for Change (AfC)

Therefore, as of 1st April 2015 you may see a change in your pay rates.

Additional changes may apply if you are on band 1 or 2, spine point 1 and in this case you would have received an email from us.

For more information or if you have any questions on pay arrangements for 2015/16, then please click here or contact the national service centre on 03332 407 552.

N. B. If you are on a personal or custom pay rate, then this change will not apply to you.

If you are authorised to claim expenses for the shift you work, you will need to submit an approved expenses form to payroll.

Before you send it in, please make sure that the form is signed and dated by you and your Manager. The date on the form must be on or after the date of the last amount you have claimed. If the approver does not date the form or the date is earlier than the date of your latest claim, the form will be returned to you unpaid.

For example, if the last item on the form is for mileage on 25th June, you and the approver must sign and date the form on 25th June or later than this date but not more than 3 months after. If it is dated 23rd June the form would be rejected.

For more information, please contact our 24 hours service centre on 03332 407 552 or email fwhr@nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk

Managing your NHSP:Online profile by regularly updating it to reflect your most up-to-date work preferences couldn’t be easier. It gives you assurance that you’re getting to see all the latest available work opportunities that fit around your lifestyle commitments.

By ensuring that your details are all up-to-date will also help us communicate with you regularly. If you wish to opt out of this service, please remember to update your personal details section and we will amend our records effectively.

Here are three quick and easy steps that will ensure you have sight of the best available shifts that meet your Trust, assignment code and hours needs.

1. How can I check for available shifts?
Login to NHSP:Online
• Main menu
• Available shifts
• Leave the box ‘Match to my available shifts’ unticked to ensure you maximise your availability
• Don’t forget to update your availability to show when you’re able to work!

2. How can I add another Trust to my profile?
Login to NHSP:Online
• Main menu
• Personal details
• Availability
• Location availability
• Edit your availability
• Add the Trust you want to work at
• Save each Trust you want to add, Trusts will need to be added and saved separately

3. How can I add assignment codes to my profile?

Arrange to meet with your local Trust Liaison Coordinator so they can record the paper-based evidence of your competence for the assignment code you wish to have added to your profile.

If you are employed by a Trust you will need to bring with you a recent payslip that shows you have worked a shift for the Trust, at the assignment code you wish to add.

Your Trust Liaison Coordinator will then arrange for your new assignment code to be added to your profile.

During the festive period, please be aware of the following important dates, including National Service Centre operating hours, timesheet release deadlines and Bank worker pay dates.

Deadline for releasing timesheets
Shifts worked up to and released by Midnight on Wednesday 9th December will be paid on Friday 18th December.

Shifts worked up to and released by Midnight on Tuesday 15th December will be paid on Wednesday 23rd December.

Shifts worked up to and released by Midnight on Tuesday 22nd December will be paid on Thursday 31st December.

Shifts worked up to and released by Midnight on Wednesday 30th December will be paid on Friday 8th January.

Pay dates

• Friday 18th December
• Wednesday 23rd December
• Thursday 31st December
• Friday 8th January

The national Service Centre will remain open 24/7 during Christmas and New Year.

Having time to think is perhaps one of the biggest daily challenges for anyone involved in healthcare. Yet the importance of being a ‘reflective practitioner’ has never been greater in ensuring the quality and safety of the services we provide. As the pace of service delivery increases and the care we provide becomes more complex. Sometimes that difference may not be just for the patient or their carer, family or friend, it may be for you and your professionalism – and possibly your career.

All nurses and midwives need to meet a range of requirements designed to show that they are keeping up to date and actively maintaining their ability to practice safely and effectively.

NHS Professionals are committed to help their Bank members to meet their Revalidation requirements and one of the elements of the revalidation process is to keep a record of five written pieces of reflective accounts. There are a number of easily accessible academic models to help you understand how you can prepare material for deeper reflection to meet the revalidation process. However, the following 3 models can help you get started.

Gibb’s reflective cycle
The descriptive Gibb’s reflective cycle can help you to see reflection as a ‘Cycle’, so the action you take in the final stage will feed back into the first stage, beginning the process again.

Gibb’s reflective cycle is a process involving six steps:

1) Description – What happened?

2) Feelings – What did you think and feel about it?

3) Evaluation – What were the positives and negatives?

4) Analysis – What sense can you make of it?

5) Conclusion – What else could you have done?

6) Action Plan – What will you do next time?

John’s model
Another model that you can use is the John’s model (1994), which recommends using a diary to help structure reflection. This helps practitioners to ‘look in on the situation’ – including focusing on yourself and paying attention to your thoughts and emotions. The model then advises to ‘look out of the situation’ and write a description of the situation around those thoughts and feelings – about what you are trying to achieve, why you responded in the way you did, how others were feeling and so on. This allows you to ask honestly – did I act in the best way? What will I learn from this experience?

‘After Action Review’ model
There are other ‘team based’ models for reflection – such as the ‘After Action Review’ model – developed initially by the US military (in dealing with hurricanes) but now used by many international aid and humanitarian organisations. It asks three simple questions to stimulate reflection and prompt solution:

• What was supposed to happen?
• What did happen?
• What was learnt?

All these models and tools can help toward putting together your written reflective accounts. NHS Professionals knows that our Bank members are good time managers, juggling work and other commitments, as they book assignments and shifts and therefore, we are here to support you in being the best you can be.

Timesheet authorisation is essential in ensuring that you are paid on time for your shift.

Once you have worked a shift it must be authorised by your ward/department manager in order for you to release your timesheet by Wednesday 11.59pm for payment the following Friday.

If your shift has not been authorised, please contact your authorising ward manager and ask them to approve the shift for you, so that you can then release your timesheet, for us to then process your payment.

Unfortunately we cannot process payment until your shift has been approved.

As frontline healthcare staff we would like to help you protect your patients, family, friends and colleagues by getting an annual flu vaccination. As you are a frontline healthcare worker your GP may provide you with a free flu vaccination. Some of our client Trusts may also provide you with a free flu vaccination as part of their vaccination programme for their permanent staff. Alternatively you can also at a small cost get your flu jab from supermarkets or your local pharmacy.

Flu viruses are constantly changing and every year different flu viruses can spread. Getting vaccinated against the flu every season protects against the main influenza viruses that research indicates will cause the most illness in that season.

Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory disease that can result in time off work and in certain individuals may lead to serious complications. Anyone can get the flu, and vaccination is the single best way to protect against it. Even healthy children and adults can get very sick from the flu and spread it to family and friends.

So remember to get your vaccination as soon as possible and get flu safe!

For information http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/flu-influenza-vaccine.aspx

Introduction – From Anne O’Brien, NHS Professionals’ Director of Clinical Governance & Operations

Many of you will have read over the last few months, indeed years, the damning stories of poor care, treatment and neglect of the patients reported at Stafford Hospital. While NHS Professionals does not provide flexible workers to this Trust, there are a number of issues that we can all learn from, things we need to understand and changes we need to make. A number of you will no doubt have received information on the Francis Report from your Trusts. However, as the biggest supplier of temporary staff to the NHS, it is important that we provide an overview for all our flexible workers.

NHS Professionals is committed to continuous improvement and, over the past five years, has made many changes to both how it operates and how it provides its services to Trusts. Those of you who have been with us for some time will have seen these improvements. As with all things there is still room for us all to improve and learn, so I will be setting out some of the plans that NHS Professionals has, what is already available, as well as what you can do to ensure we help Trusts deliver the best care possible to patients, service users, their carers and families.

Background

What is the Francis report?

On the 15th September 2009, an independent inquiry was launched into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009. The inquiry was chaired by Robert Francis QC and his final report was published in February 2010. The report concluded that patients were routinely neglected by the Trust, which was preoccupied with cost cutting, targets and processes, and which lost sight of its fundamental responsibility to provide safe care.

The evidence gathered by the inquiry shows clearly that, for many patients, the most basic elements of care were neglected. It found that a chronic shortage of staff, particularly nursing staff, was largely responsible for the substandard care. Morale at the Trust was low, and while many staff did their best in difficult circumstances, others showed a disturbing lack of compassion towards their patients. Staff who spoke out felt ignored and there is strong evidence that many were deterred from doing so through fear and bullying.

Despite the findings of the inquiry, Robert Francis QC concluded that Stafford Hospital should not be closed. He believed that while there is still much work required at the Trust, the new executive team had made a successful start in improving the safety and quality of care it provides. A public inquiry was then launched and a subsequent report was published in February 2013 with 290 recommendations.

How does this affect me? 

• Putting Patients First
You should always demonstrate care and compassion and guarantee dignity to all patients.

• Openness, transparency and candour
You should be honest, open and truthful in all dealings with patients and the public. Organisational and personal interests must never outweigh that duty.

• Caring for the elderly
You should work as part of the team and support your colleagues when on an assignment to ensure patients receive the required level of care and attention.

What is NHS Professionals doing to implement recommendations from the Francis Report?

I understand that our rigorous processes can be a cause for some frustration from time-to-time; however you will be pleased to learn that the following initiatives mean that our flexible workers are proven to meet the required standard to provide care.

• Knowledge Based Assessment as part of the recruitment process for 27 staff roles, including Registered Nurse, Registered Midwife, Care Support Workers and Allied Health Professionals, which include questions relating to values, dignity and respect;
• Flexible Worker Code of Behaviour, which includes the values of being caring, reliable and professional;
• E-learning modules to support Flexible Worker development including Compassion and Dignity for All, Early Warning Systems to recognise the deteriorating patient, Clinical observations and their interpretation and Mental Health Observations
• Performance Evaluation for all staff groups asking for feedback on the performance of a flexible worker on a particular shift based on the Knowledge and Skills Framework;
• Orientation schedule for flexible workers to ensure they receive up to date information relating to a ward area when they are new to the environment;
• Placement Expectation Guidelines for Client Trusts so that each service area can know what to expect from an NHS Professionals Flexible Worker.

By Karen Barraclough, Senior Nurse / Head of Governance at NHS Professionals

Three years ago, Dr Kate Granger, an elderly care physician, was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal cancer. During her time in hospital, she noticed there was an extreme lack of compassion and consideration for patients on some of the wards. The first thing that struck her was the absence of an introduction from her carers. As Kate revealed at the NHS Confederation Conference at the beginning of June, the staff delivering her care repeatedly referred to her as ‘bed number seven’. As you can imagine, this was extremely de-humanising and unsettling, especially as she was already in a vulnerable position as a hospital patient.

Kate was frustrated by the way she was treated, but instead of filing a complaint, she decided to do something positive to remind and encourage healthcare staff about the importance of introductions. With her husband’s support, Kate launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #hellomynameis. It soon became clear that her experience was not an unusual one as the campaign has made more than 26 million web impressions in ten months and has had countless people sharing stories and photos of their own experiences. People from all over the country were agreeing that small gestures such as welcoming introductions can make a massive difference to the confidence they have in their healthcare team. This simple idea certainly hit a nerve as Kate was flooded with messages of support from people across health and social care who have promoted the idea in their own workplaces.

NHS Professionals recognises the importance of treating patients as you would want to be treated yourself. We already encourage our workers to adhere to the 6C’s – care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment and we are now also particularly keen to promote the #hellomynameis campaign to demonstrate our commitment to delivering compassionate care.

Introducing yourself to your patients only takes a second and doesn’t cost anything, but to the patient it can make their hospital stay less frightening and really improve their experience. So go on – why not start every patient interaction today with ‘hello, my name is…”

At NHS Professionals we understand that your flexible hours of work can fall at any time around-the-clock, and recently, your feedback has suggested that our service could be further improved by increasing the operating hours of our National Service Centre.

That’s why we’ve invested in making our Service Centre available to you any time of the day, any day of the week.

Calls to our Service Centre are still charged at local rate from mobiles or landlines, any time you decide to call and you can still call us on 03332 407 552.

We hope you’ll find this change makes staying in touch, easier.

We know that workers who are paid on time are more likely to continue working shifts. So, please authorise shifts as soon as possible so the worker can release their shift and get paid on time. Please be vigilant and only authorise timesheets that you recognise and can validate.

With all the recent government guidelines on agency capping, NHS Professionals is working in partnership with our client Trusts to encourage nurses to return back to the bank and support their local NHS.

We need your help and support to encourage nurses who are not currently part of the bank to join and work in partnership with your Trust to support the NHS.

For more information on the Love the NHS, Return to the Bank campaign please click here or contact your local Trust Liaison Coordinator.

Having time to think is perhaps one of the biggest daily challenges for anyone involved in healthcare. Yet the importance of being a ‘reflective practitioner’ has never been greater in ensuring the quality and safety of the services we provide. As the pace of service delivery increases and the care we provide becomes more complex. Sometimes that difference may not be just for the patient or their carer, family or friend, it may be for you and your professionalism – and possibly your career.

All nurses and midwives need to meet a range of requirements designed to show that they are keeping up to date and actively maintaining their ability to practice safely and effectively.

NHS Professionals are committed to help their Bank members to meet their Revalidation requirements and one of the elements of the revalidation process is to keep a record of five written pieces of reflective accounts. There are a number of easily accessible academic models to help you understand how you can prepare material for deeper reflection to meet the revalidation process. However, the following 3 models can help you get started.

Gibb’s reflective cycle
The descriptive Gibb’s reflective cycle can help you to see reflection as a ‘Cycle’, so the action you take in the final stage will feed back into the first stage, beginning the process again.

Gibb’s reflective cycle is a process involving six steps:

1) Description – What happened?

2) Feelings – What did you think and feel about it?

3) Evaluation – What were the positives and negatives?

4) Analysis – What sense can you make of it?

5) Conclusion – What else could you have done?

6) Action Plan – What will you do next time?

John’s model
Another model that you can use is the John’s model (1994), which recommends using a diary to help structure reflection. This helps practitioners to ‘look in on the situation’ – including focusing on yourself and paying attention to your thoughts and emotions. The model then advises to ‘look out of the situation’ and write a description of the situation around those thoughts and feelings – about what you are trying to achieve, why you responded in the way you did, how others were feeling and so on. This allows you to ask honestly – did I act in the best way? What will I learn from this experience?

‘After Action Review’ model
There are other ‘team based’ models for reflection – such as the ‘After Action Review’ model – developed initially by the US military (in dealing with hurricanes) but now used by many international aid and humanitarian organisations. It asks three simple questions to stimulate reflection and prompt solution:

• What was supposed to happen?
• What did happen?
• What was learnt?

All these models and tools can help toward putting together your written reflective accounts. NHS Professionals knows that our Bank members are good time managers, juggling work and other commitments, as they book assignments and shifts and therefore, we are here to support you in being the best you can be.