Staff wellbeing impacts patient experience
New research carried out by the National Nursing Research Unit at King’s College London strongly suggests that levels of satisfaction and wellbeing among NHS staff has a direct impact on patients’ experiences of healthcare. Investing in staff wellbeing is therefore not only important for the nursing workforce but also for quality of care overall.
The three year study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research (NIHR HS&DR) Programme, which was led by the National Nursing Research Unit, and involved academics and practitioners form the Department of Management at King’s College London, and the University of Southampton, involved over 200 hours of direct care observation, patient focus groups, interviews and surveys, as well as interviews with senior managers and frontline staff and a staff survey at four different trusts.
Professor Jill Maben, lead researcher and Director of the National Nursing Research Unit, said:
“While it may appear self-evident that patients’ experiences and the quality of health care they receive are influenced by the experiences of the staff providing that care, there was limited UK research that explored this link. This study strongly suggests that patient experiences are better when staff feel they have a good working environment, support from co-workers and their manager and low emotional exhaustion. These findings are significant and demonstrate that staff wellbeing is an antecedent, not a consequence, of patient care performance. Thus seeking systematically to enhance staff wellbeing is not only important in its own right but also for the quality of patient experiences. High performing organisations are recognising this and are acting upon staff experience feedback as well as patient experiences of care - seeking to directly improve staff experience as part of quality improvement initiatives”.
The study, entitled Exploring the relationship between patients’ experiences of care and the influence of staff motivation, affect and wellbeing, aimed to determine which particular staff attitudes and behaviours impacted on patient experiences.
Professor Maben continued:
“Our study highlights the importance of the team, and the team leader role in supporting and nurturing staff and in building a strong climate for patient care. Local leaders have a critical role in supporting staff in their sometimes difficult work and also in setting expectations of values, behaviours and attitudes to support the delivery of patient-centred care. Thus investing time and energy in team building is of critical importance for patient care delivery”.
Professor Glenn Robert, Chair in Healthcare Quality & Innovation at the NNRU, said:
“As previous research has indicated, patient recollections of their own – and others’ – experiences are vivid, and focus largely on the relational aspects of care. Our research suggests that interpersonal relationships with staff are critical to patient experience, but the level of ‘connection’ with staff as reported by patients and/or observed by researchers in our study was often poor. Patients want staff to show genuine interest in them as people; to be non-judgemental and competent; continuity of staff enhances levels of trust and the confidence felt by patients that their care needs are fully understood. Patients also wanted their relatives and carers to be kept informed and involved. However, staff often reported not being able to deliver the care they wanted to, citing insufficient staffing levels and competing demands on their time as preventing them from delivering the high quality care they wished to give”.
The report is available from the authors and from the NIHR website: http://www.netscc.ac.uk/hsdr/projdetails.php?ref=08-1819-213
Maben J, Peccei R, Adams M, Robert G, Richardson A, Murrells T.and Morrow E. Patients' experiences of care and the influence of staff motivation, affect and wellbeing. Final report. NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation programme; 2012.