UKCCNA Position Statement: Emergency Nurse Staffing for COVID-19: Wave 2 (Nov 2020)
17th Nov 2020
The UKCCNA acknowledges the enormous pressure nurses are experiencing at present. Based on research evidence and experience from Wave 1, critical care nurse leads believe they will best secure patient safety and staff well-being in Wave 2 if nurse: patient ratios are maintained at a minimum of one trained critical care nurse* and one registered healthcare professional** for two level 3 beds (compared with the normal 1:1 ratio), and one trained critical care nurse with one registered healthcare professional for four level 2 beds (compared to the normal 1:2 ratio). This should be achieved through the redeployment of staff from outside of critical care, who should have received surge training.
As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, the NHS now needs to consider how to resume ‘business as usual’; to restart elective activity and to plan for the future. Redeployed staff (both from critical care and other areas of healthcare) need to return to their normal duties, whilst there is also a need to be on standby for a potential second surge. Staff are mentally and physically exhausted and at the present time, we do not know what impact the pandemic has had on nurses’ (critical care and redeployed) psychological well-being; or on our professional colleagues. The UKCCNA would like to emphasise that an emergency nursing workforce model, such as that put in place for COVID-19 is not sustainable under normal working conditions. We strongly advocate that the pre-pandemic national recommendations for nurse-patient staffing ratios for level 2 (1:2) and level 3 (1:1) patients continue to be the standard to which we work. Whilst we acknowledge that long standing vacancy factors may make this difficult to achieve, the GPICS2 statement on nurse staffing in critical care should remain in place until such time that we have research data supporting the need for a change in recommendations. The UKCCNA believes that a review of recruitment and retention strategies to encourage nurses into critical care will help ensure that we have sufficiently trained staff for a greater ICU bed capacity in the future. We fully support the review of critical care staffing roles more widely to examine how we can best work together to deliver safe and effective care to our patients and their families, whilst ensuring the wellbeing of our critical care staff.
UKCCNA Position Statement: Emergency Nurse Staffing for COVID-19: Wave 2 (Nov 2020)