Challenges facing UK healthcare – and the solutions that can help
Healthcare in the UK faces a number of serious challenges, including lack of money, staff shortages, and new expectations for documentation. To meet these challenges, nurses will have to find ways to do more with less, without any compromise to quality of care or patient safety. How can this be achieved?
Long hours at relatively low pay
According to healthcare agency the Nurses Group, one of the leading issues facing UK nurses is relatively low pay for long hours of demanding work1. Data released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that salaries for nurses in the UK fell by 6 percent between 2010 and 2019 after adjusting for inflation2.
Why are nurses working such long hours? Staff shortages are a major factor.
Staff shortages lengthen already challenging shifts
UK nursing is currently facing severe staffing shortages that often force nurses to work extended shifts beyond their scheduled 10-12 hours. These factors contribute to the risk of excessive fatigue and burnout1.
Despite the fact that staffing is often inadequate, the problem is unlikely to be resolved in the near future. The number of students beginning a nursing program in the UK dropped by 12% for 2023-20243. These declines are likely to make the current nursing shortage in the UK an even bigger challenge than it is now.
Due to this ongoing labor shortage, the same or an even greater amount of work has to be done by a smaller number of employees. This can only be done if the work itself is run more smoothly. The endurance of nursing staff is already being tested, so the focus must be on technological solutions that genuinely facilitate and speed up the work.
Documentation issues
Documentation is one of the most important aspects of a nurse’s work, and also one of the most time-consuming. Nurses typically spend up to 15% of the workday in documentation tasks4. However, documentation in UK nursing has suffered from a lack of standardization and structure4.
The requirements for documentation have been constantly increasing, and the same trend seems likely to continue. Recognizing the importance of documentation in nursing, England’s National Health Service posted a new set of guidelines for nursing documentation in September, 2023. The guidelines set out a unified vision for how documentation should be performed in hospitals, communities, and nursing homes5.
The most important reason for good documentation practices is to ensure quality of care. In order to ensure uniformity, the procedures must be consistent, and the treatment must be documented in a structured and standardized way.
Even small improvements in the everyday workflow can become significant. For nursing professionals, the reduction of time spent on documentation and the increase in time available for patient work are often important motivational factors that help them to enjoy themselves and thus stay in their jobs.
Such improvements can be achieved with truly user-friendly technological solutions. Technological solutions can bring relief to a challenging situation, especially when it comes to administrative work, such as documentation. Medanets is an example of a solution whose benefits have been verified in practice and whose return on investment (ROI) is very short – in practice always less than a year.
Sources:
1. Sophia Grace (2023): What are the top seven nursing issues and how to overcome them? Accessed 8th December 2023.
2. Servet Yanatma (2023): Nurses salaries: Which countries pay healthcare workers the most and the least in Europe? Accessed 8th December 2023.
3. Gemma Mitchell (2023): Student nurse university starters remain down 12%. Accessed 8th December 2023.
4. Helen Balsdon (2021): Why we’re developing standards for nursing documentation. Accessed 8th December 2023.
5. NHS England (2023): Towards a unified vision of nursing and midwifery documentation. Accessed 8th December 2023.
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