14th January 2021
As we begin 2021, COVID-19 cases are continuing to rise and there are already sustained additional pressures. Staffing shortages will exacerbate the pressures and the impact on staff both personally and professionally and will be potentially prolonged throughout the coming months.
Patient/client/resident and staff safety continues to be the priority for all Health and Social Care organisations and along with other nursing and midwifery leaders in Northern Ireland, the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) has continued to consider how best to support registrants in a range of areas relating to the nursing and midwifery response to the pandemic.
In 2020, NIPEC developed and launched the ‘Enabling Professionalism during Surge Demand’ microsite to provide clear advice and guidance to registrants during periods of high volume activity and workload for nursing staff. As there have been some discussions within the professions regarding the current pressures on nursing and midwifery staff to maintain safe practice through recording person centred assessment, risk assessment and ongoing care, the CNO asked NIPEC to release a new resource on the microsite relating to record keeping practice during periods of surge demand, and in particular, how to use the Adult Person-centred Nursing Assessment and Plan of Care Document, which was revised and implemented in April 2019 in all of the HSC Trusts.
This resource will help nurses and midwives think through their professional responsibilities, prioritise and record those elements of assessment that are pertinent to each person they are treating, to then plan appropriately the nursing and midwifery care required for that individual.
You can link directly to this guidance here