Visit from the Icelandic Ministry for Health

Pictured L to R: Sharon Slattery, Director of Nursing, Joanne Coogan, CNM 3, SACC, Saira Mathews, CNM 2, Safe Staffing, Ruth Hughes, CNM 3, ECO & Safe Staffing, Gráinne Sheehan, Nursing Project Office, Department of Health, Aisling Breen, CNM 3, HR, Karen Green, Deputy Chief Nurse, Department of Health, Eva McGoldrick, CNM 2 Private 3, Rakel Gudjonsdottir, Icelandic Ministry for Health, and Elin Hafsteinsdottir, Icelandic Ministry for Health

The Safe Nurse Staffing team welcomed Rakel Gudjonsdottir and Elin Hafsteinsdottir from the Icelandic Ministry for Health as they set out to develop a safe nurse staffing framework similar to the one that has been implemented here in St James’s Hospital. They were accompanied to the hospital by Karen Greene, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, and Gráinne Sheeran, Nursing Project Officer from the Irish Department of Health. This was a great opportunity to share the St James’s Hospital’s Safe Nurse Staffing and TrendCare journey from implementation to present day with our international colleagues.

The Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix policy, developed by the Department of Health, was first introduced in the hospital in 2021; in specialist medical and surgical care settings. It is a systematic, triangulated, evidence-based approach to determine nurse and healthcare assistant staffing; based on patient acuity and dependency. The patient acuity and dependency system TrendCare went live in the hospital in August 2022. TrendCare, a workforce planning and management system, works by allowing nursing staff to measure patient acuity, or the level of care a patient requires, against the clinical hours required to deliver that care. This presents many benefits to nursing staff, the most important being the ability to determine safe staffing levels, by the level of care required for their patients, at any given time. Informally, nurse managers noted great improvements in staffing levels and efficiency since introducing the policy, which has given staff the ability to attend study days and has enabled wards to take on new surgical specialities.

We were delighted to welcome our Icelandic colleagues to see the successful implementation of the Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix policy in action here in St James’s Hospital. We hope it was encouraging for them to see the improvements in staff management that can be enjoyed when a framework like this is implemented.