Friday 17 April 2015

Keep an eye on the blog...

To ensure interested readers can easily access our work and findings, we have created a series of briefing sheets.  These are available as appendices in the main report but we will publish them separately here on the blog.  Please share and use these resources.  All we ask is that if you use these that you reference our work.  The briefing sheets include:

1. Overview of the scoping study and findings

2. Individual summaries for each of the four linked strands of work:

  • A rapid review of published literature on care and professional development needs of registered nurses in care homes;
  • Mapping secondary data sources on workforce characteristics of registered nurse staffing in care homes;
  • A modified Delphi survey to establish as objectively as possible a consensus on the care and professional development needs of registered nursing staff in care homes using a ‘panel’ representing three separate stakeholder groups from across the UK: care home nurses and managers; nurse educators in higher education; and community healthcare professionals (including general practitioners, geriatricians, specialist and district nurses); and
  • Telephones interviews with stakeholders - care home managers and nurses, general practitioners, specialist nurses (NHS) with a role in care homes, and leaders in care home work (national and international) - to provide depth of understanding.


3. Individual summaries of the literature themes: (1) care home relationships; (2) delirium; (3) dementia care; (4) depression; (5) end of life care; (6) hospital admission; (7) long term condition management; (8) undergraduate pre-registration nurse education; (9) nursing roles; (10) personal care; (11) quality of care; (12) resident safety; (13) staff development; (14) staff well-being and safety; (15) support for care homes from the NHS; and (16) tissue viability.


Final report now available

We are pleased to announce that the final report is now available to download from the RCN Foundation web site.  We consider this scoping work to address an important gap in understanding about the registered nursing workforce in UK care homes.  Specifically we report on:
  • the characteristics of the registered nursing workforce in care homes;
  • the extent to which education prepares registered nurses for a role in care home environments;
  • the continuing professional development needs of registered nursing staff in care homes;
  • opportunities (current or planned) to support the career aspirations of this nursing workforce;
  • gaps in knowledge and understanding about this important proportion of the nursing workforce; and 
  • priorities for future research and development projects.  


While we recognise that a large proportion of care is provided by care assistants in care homes, this group of staff are not the focus for this work.  However, we do make reference to the ways in which registered nurses work with this important group of staff.

The recruitment and retention of the registered nursing workforce in care homes is of high priority and concern. We hope the report findings provide a useful platform for stakeholders in the sector - including commissioners, providers, care home managers, care home nurses, educators and researchers – to start a conversation and consider what needs to happen next.