14 November 2011

Attn: All INMO Members

Maintaining Safe Standards And Safe Practice

Dear Colleague

As you may have seen the INMO recently held a major national conference, on Friday, 4th November 2011, on the critical issue of maintaining safe standards and safe practice.

The INMO Executive Council has considered, in great detail, the many issues arising from this conference and, in particular, implications for nursing and midwifery staff following the Royal Commission Report into standards of care in the Mid-Staffordshire Health Trust in the United Kingdom.  As a result of this and in order to support members, in the frontline, faced with very real challenges with regard to maintaining safe standards and safe practice, the Executive Council has decided the following:

Clinical Risk Forms:

The INMO will undertake an examination of the various clinical risk forms being utilised throughout the health system.

The Organisation will also seek to establish, in a sample number of hospitals, who is filling out these forms, the quantity of forms submitted, where are the forms being sent and what action is being taken by management when risks have been identified.

Education in Clinical Risk:

The Organisation is also immediately undertaking a review, with regard to clinical risk measurement, with a view to determining:

• what supports do members require to ensure that they feel comfortable completing, and submitting, clinical risk forms;

• the development of a web based educational tool, which INMO members could access, assisting them with how to determine any increased clinical risk and how best to record it and submit to management.

Role of Clinical Nurse Managers:

In addition the Organisation will undertake a major consultation programme, with our CNM2 members, to again specifically assist them with regard to:

• assessing increased levels of clinical risk in any aspect of the wards/units operation arising from staff shortage/curtailments/other deficits;

• measures necessary to empower the CNM2 to safely determine the appropriate quantum of service, while maintaining safe standards, consistent with the quantum of staff available on a daily basis; and

• developing tools to increase communication, within and between, the CNM2 group, regionally and nationally, to again aid with the review and learning generally about measuring clinical risk.

Directors of Nursing:

The Organisation will also initiate increased levels of contact, on a two way basis, with Directors of Nursing/Midwifery members to determine their current views/ approach to the following:

• the availability of agency staff, with appropriate skills, whenever they are needed;

• what attention is being paid, by other senior managers, to the measurement of clinical risk and what actions are being taken when clinical risk forms are submitted; and

• to determine what other support initiatives the Organisation can put in place, for senior nurse managers, to ensure the mistakes of Mid-Staffordshire are not repeated in this country.

These initiatives will obviously take a number of weeks to roll out in full.  The Executive Council has decided that this is to be an absolute priority issue, for the whole Organisation, in the face of the current difficulties facing all members.

The absolute priority must be the avoidance of the very harmful, negative and damaging events that took place, in Mid-Staffordshire, which resulted in over 400 avoidable deaths and almost 50 nurses being reported to that country’s fitness to practice process.

Developments on all of these issues will be reported, on an ongoing basis, as well as updates appearing in the World of Irish Nursing & Midwifery journal.

Yours sincerely


_____________________
LIAM DORAN
General Secretary