thereidenator t1_j0hy57s wrote
Hi Lucy, I’m an RMN working in a community adult access team, I have experience in female and male forensics, community affective disorders and CAMHS inpatients. I have a bit of a passion for trauma informed care probably to the point that I think almost all mental health diagnoses stem from a form of PTSD. For me the barriers to compassionate care at the moment come mainly from staffing and burnout related issues. It’s hard to give patients your best when the staff team are spread so thinly. In CAMHS I found patients attitude towards each other made things difficult as well as the attitude of their parents, I think the complaint culture we have gotten into plays a big part in this as well, as we are scared to do our jobs in some ways due to fear of litigation if something goes wrong. I think being able to recognise when staff are burned out and rotating them for a while would be great but rarely happens, especially if you work somewhere like a PICU where it’s hard to recruit to. Do you think that the staffing problems we have now, such as a heavy reliance on agency staff, mean that patients are not getting good, compassionate care and continuity in their care?
UniversityofBath OP t1_j0yidfu wrote
Aha I found your question! Thank you for writing this. I'm so sorry that things are so hard at the moment. It feels like things have always been difficult but in recent years have really bene stretched so so thin. I do think that staffing problems contribute to barriers to care. That's not to say that some agency staff aren't brilliant, but I think it's harder to have the same sense of continuity and team cohesion. It's also so stressful for the senior nurses managing the rota and trying to fill shifts. I do also think there is hope though because retention of staff is better in some wards than others, so I think we can learn from what is working in some places as well as from the research.
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