Scoping The Regulation Of Health Care Support Workers, UK

Written on January 17, 2024 - 4:31 am | by admin

The NMC, the statutory regulatory body for the UK’s 620,000 nurses and midwives, is commissioning research to analyse the potential risks and benefits relating to the regulation of health care support workers in the UK.

Health care support workers (HCSWs) and their equivalents provide direct services related to patient care and treatment and support the work of registered nurses and midwives. There is currently no statutory provision for the regulation of the estimated one million HCSWs working in the UK.

The NMC is commissioning Professor Peter Griffiths and Dr Sarah Robinson of the National Nursing Research Unit at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery based at King’s College, London to analyse the risks and issues presented to public protection by unregulated HCSWs. Their findings will support the NMC in determining what, if any, action it should take to protect the public through the regulation of these roles. The researchers will consider implications for practitioners, including HCSWs and the way in which nurses and midwives delegate to them, across the UK working in the NHS and any other settings or forms of health care. The role of regulators, employers and the potential impact on individuals will be considered. It is anticipated that Professor Griffiths and Dr Robinson will present their report to the NMC’s Executive Management Board by spring 2010.

Commenting on the commissioning of the research, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, Professor Dickon Weir-Hughes said:

“The regulation of health care support workers operating below the level of registered nurses and midwives continues to raise questions regarding public protection. This is likely to increase as more and more activities previously undertaken by nurses and midwives are devolved to this, unregulated part of the workforce. It is a concern that someone who has been struck off the register as, for example, a nurse working in a care home can potentially continue working in care homes as an HCSW”.

Professor Weir-Hughes continued:

“As part of their approach, the researchers will review previous work into the regulation of HCSWs that has been carried out in each of the four countries of the UK, most recently by the Scottish Government’s Health Directorate. The Scottish work has been extremely helpful in defining good employment practice. We now need to look at a system of UK wide centralised regulation of HCSWs”.

Professor Peter Griffiths said:

“We are delighted to be undertaking this research which will provide the NMC with an overview of the current key issues. Future developments in the nursing role open the possibility that more and more nursing work will be undertaken by non registered staff which can and do raise questions about how best to ensure the safety of patients and the public who receive care that is supervised but not delivered by registered nurses.”

Notes

1. Professor Peter Griffiths is Director of the National Nursing Research Unit at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery based at King’s College, London. He has researched and written on nursing-led services and advanced and specialist practice roles in chronic disease management and intermediate care. Professor Griffiths was previously head of graduate studies for taught programmes in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College, London, where he also led the interdisciplinary MSc programme in Advanced Practice and devised and taught the interdisciplinary master’s course in Evidence-Based Decision Making. He is Executive Editor of the International Journal of Nursing Studies and Associate Editor of Evidence Based Nursing.

2. Dr Sarah Robinson is Senior Research Fellow in the National Nursing Research Unit at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery based at King’s College, London. Dr Robinson has led a range of projects concerned with the education, inter-professional responsibilities, working lives and career development of nurses and midwives. Dr Robinson’s current research interests include: career development and support, career guidance, nurses’ working lives and work/life balance.

Source
Nursing & Midwifery Council

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