Safe nursing levels vital for end of life care
Safe staffing levels and ongoing development of nurses' knowledge and skills is essential for providing quality end-of-life care, according to the RCN.
Chief Executive Dr Peter Carter was responding to the publication of the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death study.
He said: "This stark report underlines the importance of training and development of all health care staff, particularly in end of life care. It also shows that effective communication between staff is the engine that ensures quality care is constant.
"It is crucial to realise that to reduce stress on patients and their carers the right information is shared within clinical teams as well as from one healthcare setting to another, should the patient need to be transferred."
In its employment survey, the RCN recently revealed four out of ten (42 per cent) nurses feel care is compromised at least once a week because of short staffing.
Dr Carter added: "We must make sure there is the right number and balance of nursing staff in hospitals and in the community. This is especially important in end-of-life care which is predominantly delivered by nurses.
"We recognise the need to improve care in this area and the RCN has been heavily involved in implementing the end-of-life care strategy."
The study looked at the care of more than 3,000 terminally-ill patients.
