School of Nursing & Midwifery Annual Report 2018

Researcher Spotlight

RESEARCHER SPOTLIGHT

based approach to ensuring that wards are safely staffed. Following this, the Health Research Board released a second funding call to expand the research in medical and surgical settings and the acute floor, including emergency departments. Professor Drennan was successful in obtaining this funding, one of the largest research grants awarded in Ireland to study the nursing workforce. The research on safe staffing is being undertaken in 36 medical, surgical and specialist wards in three hospitals and in emergency departments and one local injury unit in another four hospitals nationally. The research team are examining the impact of stabilising the nursing workforce on a number of outcomes including patient outcomes (mortality, adverse events, patient experience), nursing care (missed care, quality of care), nurse outcomes (job satisfaction, burnout, intention to leave) and organisational outcomes (staff turnover, retention and recruitment). Overall, this research is providing an evidence base for healthcare managers, clinicians, researchers and policy makers in determining safe nurse staffing levels on hospital wards and in emergency care settings.

emergency departments. He presented to and advised the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Safe Staffing Advisory Committees in the UK on safe nurse staffing in medical and surgical wards and accident and emergency departments in the UK. He is also a member of the Department of Health advisory team involved in the development of guidelines for safe nurse staffing and skill mix in the healthcare sector. He is currently leading a Health Research Board funded study on safe nurse staffing in medical, surgical and, emergency settings. In 2016, Professor Drennan was awarded funding to carry out a pilot study of Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill- Mix in Ireland in medical and surgical wards across three hospital sites. The outcomes from this pilot research demonstrated a positive impact on staff and patient outcomes and the working environment, leading to the stabilisation of the nursing workforce in the research sites. The results from the study informed the publication of the policy document “A Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill-Mix in Medical, Surgical and Specialist Settings in Ireland”; this outlines an evidence

Professor Jonathan Drennan

Jonathan Drennan currently holds the Chair of Nursing and Health Services Research at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork; prior to that he was Professor of Healthcare Research at the University of Southampton. He has undertaken research in Ireland and the UK on non- medical prescribing, emergency care, the abuse and neglect of older people in community and residential settings, cancer information services, the development of priorities for nursing research and safe nurse staffing. He is the co-author of a Cochrane review on hospital nurse staffing models and staff and patient outcomes as well as systematic reviews on safe nurse staffing in medical/surgical wards and

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