Staff safety boosted by registered mental health nurses

New research has revealed that increasing the number of registered nurses in the mental health setting could help protect the thousands of healthcare workers falling victim to ‘adverse events’ like aggression or harassment.

Birmingham City University assessed three years of data from an NHS mental healthcare provider and found staff safety, like patient safety, correlates with nurse staffing levels and skill mix.

The study, which will help form a report to be published in the Health Informatics Journal, used ‘clinically required’ staffing levels and the variation from this to explore the reporting of adverse events on staff in the mental health setting to understand and characterise the culture of safety. The report indicates that where clinical demand is inherently low, for example during the night shift, there is a greater risk of adverse events being reported.

Therefore, the data suggests that low staffing levels increased risk, but that this could be counteracted by increasing the number of registered nurses on a ward above what is ‘clinically required’.

Dr Sarahjane Jones, Senior Research Fellow in Health and Social Care at Birmingham City University, said: “These findings are the first to directly address the safety of healthcare staff using data in this way. They offer an opportunity for a tightening up of policy governing safety culture and workforce safety and retention.”