In what is thought to be the largest workforce survey in the world, hospital porters and district nurses, surgeons and receptionists – staff at every level in every English NHS trust – are being asked for their views. It could mean changes in security management across the health service.
Some 350,000 NHS staff in England are being given a chance to say exactly what they think about their working lives. As in the two previous years, the Healthcare Commission expects to see over 200,000 responses to this survey.
The Healthcare Commission, the inspection body organising this national survey, wants staff views to contribute to patient care. The survey covers topics such as health and safety, and violence against staff. The commission reports that trusts and other healthcare organisations have already used last year’s results to introduce changes such as improving staffing levels where there is a high risk of violence from patients, such as in accident and emergency.
Healthcare Commission Chief Executive, Anna Walker, said; “The NHS has a fantastic resource in its loyal and committed workforce. This survey gives staff an opportunity to voice their views to help shape the way they are managed in the future. Results from the national NHS staff surveys in 2003 and 2004 have highlighted a number of important issues for staff, including for some, their experience of violence and harassment at work, stress and poor work life balance. As a result of the 2003 survey findings the Healthcare Commission made a series of recommendations to NHS organisations to tackle these problems. The 2004 survey findings suggested that progress has already been made on several of these recommendations, and that generally speaking, staff in the NHS continue to be satisfied with their jobs.”
The Healthcare Commission has organised the survey with the Staff Survey Advice Centre at Aston University. Collected data will be sent to the centre in mid December and trusts will receive a detailed report of their survey findings in February 2006.
