Staff Vacancies Research Articles

Unequal staffing: A snapshot of nurse staffing in critical care units in New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract A growing body of research provides evidence of the link between nurse-to-patient ratios and skill mix with adverse patient outcomes. This paper reports an investigation into nurse staffing patterns, skill mix and patient movement in critical care units in New South Wales, Australia. A 'snapshot' of staffing patterns and patient movement over one week in October 2012 was obtained by use of a cross-sectional design using retrospective survey and administrative data. A wide variation was found in nurse-to-patient ratios, skill mix and the number of nursing staff vacancies in coronary care and high dependency units. These variations suggest that the quality of patient care may vary between facilities in New South Wales.

Voices - The nursing workforce is crying out for investment, says Peter Carter

The RCN’s latest Frontline First report, published this week, paints a worrying picture of the number of nursing staff vacancies in England.

Correlates of Co-Sourcing/Outsourcing of Internal Audit Activities

SUMMARY:I use responses from 1,059 chief audit executives (CAEs) of organizations located in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the U.K./Ireland, and the U.S. to investigate several correlates of co-sourcing and/or outsourcing (hereafter, simply “outsourcing”) of internal audit activities. An important finding of the study is that audit committee involvement is positively and significantly associated with outsourcing of internal audit activities. Interactions of audit committee involvement with organization size and location generally indicate that medium and large international/multinational organizations with audit committee involvement outsource more than medium and large local/national organizations with no audit committee involvement. Analysis of control variables produces significance for an inverse relationship between outsourcing and value-added activities of the internal audit function, and for positive relationships between outsourcing and missing skill set and audit staff vacancies. Other control variables, such as CAE age, college degree (graduate/undergraduate), major (accounting versus others), internal audit certification, and regular meetings with the audit committee do not show significant associations with outsourcing. Also, country of residence (U.S. versus other Anglo-culture countries) is not significant, but for-profit organizations outsource significantly more of their internal audit activities than not-for-profit/governmental organizations.Data Availability: Please contact the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation, which owns the CBOK (2010) database used in this study.

Influence of public health is under threat as senior posts remain unfilled

Unfilled senior staff vacancies in public health in local authorities have led to fears that the strategic grip and influence of the specialty will be undermined when local government assumes responsibility for public health from next April.1 Shortages were particularly acute in London, a stocktake by the Local Government Association of staff transfers out of the NHS has shown. The stocktake indicates that, although 95% of local authorities expected to fulfil public health functions effectively from next April, key leadership posts remained a concern “through the transition and beyond.” As of October 2012, 19 of the expected 133 posts of director of public health in England’s 152 councils remained unfilled. The Midlands and East of England, the North, and the South clusters of strategic health authorities each have …

Correlates of Co-Sourcing/Out-Sourcing of Internal Audit Activities

Responses from 1,059 chief audit executives (CAEs) are used to investigate a number of variables that are theoretically associated with co-sourcing/out-sourcing (COUTing) of internal audit activities. The CAE responses represent Anglo-culture organizations located in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the U.K./Ireland, and the U.S. I hypothesize and find evidence that while value-added activities are negatively associated with COUTing, missing skill sets and audit staff vacancies are positively associated with COUTing. Among several control variables investigated, organization size is negatively associated, and audit committee involvement is positively associated with COUTing, but at marginal significance levels. No other control variable is statistically significant, lending support for robustness of the main findings.

What Drives the Recruitment of Migrant Workers to Work in Social Care in England?

This article outlines the reasons for the recruitment of migrant workers by the adult care sector in England, as revealed by participants in a multi-method study. The background to the study is the changing socio-demographic profile of the social care workforce, notably the employment of non-UK citizens in large numbers from outside traditional recruitment sources within the British Commonwealth. The article reports on 136 individual interviews with different stakeholders from the English social care sector undertaken in 2008–2009. Drawing on a theoretical framework developed during the first phase of the study, the analysis revealed a two-fold explanation of the demand for migrant workers in the English care sector. First, to fill specific staff vacancies, either through direct recruitment of workers from outside the UK or among those already in the UK; and, second, a more strategic, but less common, decision to recruit migrants with specific characteristics. The implications for social policy are set in the context of political concerns about migration and concurrent political aspirations to improve social care through resolving recruitment difficulties.

Quality Improvement Project to Determine Outpatient Chemotherapy Capacity and Improve Utilization

Nurses in chemotherapy administration settings are constantly challenged to increase utilization while maintaining patient safety. A performance improvement project was carried out to identify barriers to patient throughput and opportunities to improve utilization while not compromising patient safety. We found ways to safely increase the number of patients from 92 to 108 per day; however, patient tardiness and staff vacancies had a negative impact on patient wait times and nursing staff overtime.

Innovative Strategies for Nurse Recruitment and Retention in Behavioral Health

Successfully recruiting licensed nurses to work in behavioral health is challenging. This article describes and illustrates methods one hospital successfully used to attract, orient, and mentor new graduate nurses to work in mental health. The New Horizons program included a paid internship for new graduate vocational nurses, a mental health curriculum, preceptorship, a state board review course, and a new graduate program. Since 2003, the program has recruited 37 new graduates for the unfilled licensed staff vacancies in mental health who continued their professional education and pursued degrees as registered nurses. The evaluations indicated that more than 100% of graduates rated the program as excellent as well as recommended it to their friends, and retention has been more than 90%. New Horizons graduates have received promotions; one has assumed a new role as a clinical resource nurse who teaches nursing orientation. All stakeholders including nurse management, patients, other disciplines, and coworkers have high praise for the program graduates. The program increased the cultural diversity of the mental health staff because the graduates included high percentages of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans and less than 10% of White Americans. Adult learning technologies were used including teaching with films, role-playing, case studies, reflective thinking, evidence-based practice, and group performance improvement projects. Research-based fact sheets were used for the course and continued education. These 1-page fact sheets help nurses apply the evidence to improve nursing practice.

Workforce and Service Delivery Analysis across New Zealand Hospital Pharmacy Departments

ABSTRACTBackgroundThere is a lack of baseline data about the workforce, and services provided by hospital pharmacists in New Zealand.AimTo determine the composition of the hospital pharmacy workforce in New Zealand and the level of service providedMethodA questionnaire was sent to chief pharmacists at all 30 public hospitals employing a pharmacist in November 2001, and repeated in November 2003. Data were requested on staff numbers, vacancies, staff experience, training, validation, and pharmacy services provided. Results were analysed for all hospitals, and within groups.Results25 hospitals (83%) responded in both years. Hospitals varied widely in their funded and actual staffing levels and in the services delivered. Services (drug distribution, ward pharmacy, patient counselling, drug information, formulary and treatment guideline development) were provided to a greater extent and with more favourable staffing levels in the large hospitals. The median number of beds per full‐time equivalent pharmacist was 50 but the variation across the hospitals was considerable with a range of 30 to 394 beds/full‐time equivalent pharmacist in 2003. Overall, pharmacist vacancy rate of 24% in 2001 had decreased to 15% by 2003.ConclusionThis study demonstrated a wide variation in workforce and service delivery within and across hospitals, with the differences not necessarily relating to hospital size or type. Staff vacancies appeared high and recruitment and retention were considered key workforce issues.

Human Resource Problems and State Management Performance Across Two Decades

Based on the views of hundreds of managers in 10 states surveyed in 1982 and 2000, this article explores the severity of a range of human resource-related barriers to effective state management. Adequately rewarding outstanding employees, difficulty filling key staff vacancies, retaining experienced staff, disciplining low-performing employees, and—in 2000—uncompetitive pay were among the most serious impediments. Little change in the severity of various human resource-related problems occurred between 1982 and 2000, however. Despite the criticism often leveled at them, variation in civil service coverage and variation in public sector collective bargaining were typically only weakly related to the severity of particular personnel-related problems. In fact, certain problems were less serious in those states with more extensive civil service coverage or more widespread collective bargaining. There was little evidence that deregulating aspects of state human resource systems reduced the severity of personnel-related impediments.

OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE ACS NATIONAL MEETING IN ATLANTA

Reports of Society Committees BUDGET & FINANCE The Society Committee on Budget & Finance met on Saturday, March 25, to review the society's 2005 financial performance. The committee members were pleased to learn that ACS ended 2005 favorable to budget. Staff reported that the society recorded a net from operations of $11,616,000 based on revenues of $429,150,000 and expenses of $417,534,000. The result was $9,112,000 favorable to the 2005 approved budget. The better than expected performance was primarily attributable to higher than budgeted print and electronic services revenues and investment income, as well as expense savings from reduced information technology spending and staff vacancies. In other actions, the committee elected William F. Carroll Jr. as vice chair and received a presentation on the calculation of the fully escalated dues rate for 2007. After discussion, the committee voted to recommend to council that the dues for 2007 be set at the fully escalated rate of $132. ...

Central Processing Technician Internship—A Unique Learning Opportunity

A critical shortage of qualified central processing technicians and the opening of a new central processing department (CPD) were driving forces behind the development of a CPD technician internship program at one facility. Classes focused on the principles and practices of central processing, and an OR observation gave interns the opportunity to see the impact that the work of the CPD has on OR function and patient care and safety. Program evaluations have been positive, and staff vacancies have been filled with the graduates of the internship program.

Comments on “Occupational stress in nursing”

McGrath and the team produced their paper on occupational stress in nursing in the late 1980s, the time when the Conservative government set up a review of the NHS and the service came under extensive critical scrutiny (Bloor and Maynard, 1993). The paper was published in the same year as Working for Patients (Department of Health (DH), 1989), a document that heralded the introduction of a competitive NHS environment and a fundamental split into service purchasers and providers. Analysts suggested that the impact of a funding shortfall between money provided and expenditure required became particularly apparent during 1987 (Ham et al., 1990), noting that during that year many health authorities had to take urgent action to control expenditure, notably freezing staff vacancies. The workforce was reconfigured. In the UK, e.g., the number of mangers rose from 6091 in 1989/90 to 20,478 in 1992/3 and the number of administrative and clerical staff from 144,582 to 166,363. These rises were not matched in the other groups of employees in the service (Ham, 1994). This, then, was an NHS grappling with pressures for greater financial efficiency, increased patient choice and improvements in the quality of care.

Crisis in our hospital kitchens: ancillary staffing levels during an outbreak of food poisoning in a long stay hospital.

An investigation into an outbreak of food poisoning caused by Clostridium perfringens showed evidence of poor food handling by catering staff. The reasons behind this were explored by interviewing catering staff, analysing shifts and rotas, and looking at staff vacancies. Morale was low because of staff shortages resulting from a long term recruitment problem. In consequence staff were working double shifts and often for weeks on end without a day off. The reasons for the recruitment problem included the difficulty of recruiting semiskilled labour from a middle class area, low wages, lack of management support, and the poor image of the hospital as a place of work. Similar factors affect the recruitment and retention of ancillary staff nationally. The NHS has a poor record as an employer of ancillary staff, paying lower wages than other organisations for equivalent posts. Competitive tendering has further worsened the position of ancillary staff, with the result that good quality of care and service has often not been achieved. The NHS Review, with its emphasis on quality of care, makes no mention of ancillary staff. Yet high standards of ancillary provision are essential if further outbreaks of food poisoning in hospitals are to be prevented.

Survey of Pharmacy Directors' Experience with Staff Vacancies and Recruitment

Hospital pharmacy directors were surveyed in September 1987 about staff pharmacist turnover, recruitment, and retention. Questionnaires were mailed to pharmacy directors at 541 hospitals in the United States. Three hundred thirty-nine questionnaires were returned (62.7% usable response rate); more than 50% of the questionnaires sent to each geographic region were completed. Only 129 respondents reported difficulty filling vacant staff pharmacist positions within the past 12 months, although 320 believed there is a pharmacist shortage. Seventy-eight reported having positions that remained unfilled for three to six months. For more than 90% of the vacant positions, two-thirds of the duties were in drug distribution. Five hundred thirty-three pharmacists were reported to have left their positions in the past 12 months; the directors said salary and working hours were the reasons most often given, and that 47.5% left to work at other hospitals and 13.1% at chain community pharmacies. National advertisements and the use of professional recruitment agencies were the recruitment methods most frequently mentioned, and salary increases, recognition through feedback from management, and participation in management decisions were the methods most commonly mentioned for retaining pharmacists. Salary was the most frequently reported reason for hospital pharmacist turnover, and nearly half of the pharmacists leaving their positions went to other hospitals.

Hastings nurses in cuts protest.

Almost 100 nurses from the Hastings area protested outside a recent health authority meeting, while inside members were agreeing on a cuts package worth £150,000. The cuts include ceasing ail adult surgery at St Helen's Hospital and freezing all staff vacancies, although recruitment of student nurses will be unaffected.

From Teacher to School Psychologist: A Programme of Counsellor Training

In Victoria Guidance Officers provide school psychology and guidance services to families and schools. Most are located throughout Victorian centres which service local school communities and these by and large provide a generalist service which is supplemented by the service of statewide specialists.New recruits are drawn from the teaching service and those teachers with the necessary combination of experience, qualifications and personal qualities are eligible to apply. There is usually a new intake each year and this number varies according to staff ceilings and vacancies. In 1983 the intake was 45 trainee Guidance Officers which was the largest number of teachers ever recruited. These trainees were allocated to local centres where they would undertake their supervised apprenticeship, which together with the compulsory central training, would make them eligible in two years to become registered Guidance Officers.

Staff vacancies and turnover in British old people's homes.

Staff vacancies and turnover in British old people's homes.

Medicine--profession or trade?

AS anticipated, the deferment of the agreed pay increases to the medical profession precipitated the most serious demonstration of discontent among members of the junior hospital staffs that has yet been seen. They claimed that many were working for excessively long hours, that their residential accommodations were often inadequate and that in many hospitals they had to do more than their own fair share of work because of unfilled staff vacancies. They also claimed that modern investigative technics are increasingly demanding their time and that on the grounds of increased productivity alone they should have been granted the pay rise. . . .