Safe and Effective Staffing Levels for the Allied Health Professions: a practical guide

 Dr Robert Jones and Dr Fiona Jenkins

Having appropriate numbers of allied health professionals is essential in providing safe, quality patient care. Allied Health Professionals are key healthcare team members in providing safe, quality patient care and appropriate levels of staffing are fundamental to delivering such care.

But calculating what are appropriate staffing levels can be extremely difficult.  Where do you start?  What factors do you take into account? How do you know that you have succeeded?  This book provides some solutions.

Written by two internationally respected and highly experienced AHPs, this book provides a clear and logical methodology for the calculation and determination of safe and effective staffing levels. The authors set out their findings from extensive research into the existing knowledge base, what is happening worldwide and from their substantial experience leading and managing AHP service; they present the evidence base for their recommendations.

The methodology includes practical tools and techniques which make essential reading for everyone with responsibility for staffing in healthcare.  Although written from an AHP perspective, this book is an invaluable resource for all disciplines providing healthcare.

ISBN  978 1 910303 00 9

Price £19.99

The publisher is Otmoor publishing Ltd

 To order a copy please contact stephen.bonner@otmoorpublishing.com  

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 Rob and Fiona have written:

 “Patient safety, ensuring sufficient time for consistently good quality effective care and care provided with compassion and respect for patients’ dignity, must be at the heart of all healthcare and be central to the allied health professional’s work.

 The Francis Report on serious failings at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and subsequent reports including  Berwick and  Keogh (published during 2013) drew attention to the correlation between patient safety and staffing levels on hospital wards, highlighting the need to ensure patient safety is of paramount concern for healthcare providers, planners and commissioners. This has raised awareness, not only of policy makers and the media, but also of the general public about standards of care in hospitals, bringing a much more critical analysis of service providers and expectations about the quality of care that should be provided. The national emphasis on quality of care and staffing levels has also come to the fore at a time when healthcare services face significant financial challenges and pressures.

 Although the nursing profession was largely under the spotlight, allied health professions (AHPs) are key providers of health and social care and it is important that they are treated as an integral part of the care provision picture, and consequently staffing levels determination.

 To date, there has been no nationally or internationally accepted consistent methodology adopted to determine AHPs staffing levels, giving rise to much variance between different providers and services.

 For many years we have been working on the development of a – what we believe to be – robust, evidence-based and logical approach to resolve this complex issue, including the development of several tried and tested tools which can be used in staffing levels, workforce determination and in a wide range of other AHP management and leadership practice.

 The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) was asked to review any available evidence and to produce definitive guidance on safe and effective/efficient staffing levels in a range of healthcare settings during 2014. We believe that our approach described in this book will support AHP managers and leaders, commissioners and service planners, and all those working in workforce determination in all sectors of healthcare provision. We also believe that the methodology and the concepts on which it is based will provide a useful tool for NICE and a wide range of other policy makers working on workforce development. The methodology is applicable to all healthcare settings where AHPs are providing services, and is equally applicable to AHP services throughout the UK. When we were undertaking the scoping work of published literature, possible methodologies, policies, statements and processes for this book, we scoped both nationally and internationally and there was a great deal of interest from overseas in the work we were undertaking. We hope therefore, that our approach might also be of interest and use to our AHP colleagues in many situations around the world.

 We are pleased that, given the recognition of the importance of staffing level determination to good quality, safe, effective, compassionate, caring services, the time has come for us to publish our work in this area. We hope that our methodology and the concepts which underpin it will help many AHPs and others wrestling with this complex and difficult work.”

 Phil Gray Former CEO of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy said:

I am delighted to welcome this very timely and significant book by Robert and Fiona – two nationally and internationally respected and highly experienced Allied Health professionals (AHPs) with great expertise – which will assist both United Kingdom (UK) and international AHP managers and leaders and others in one of the biggest health challenges of today … what are the safe and effective staffing levels which will ensure the provision of quality AHP services?  And what are the credible methodologies for determining staffing levels given the huge variations that exist in different health settings and between different organisations?

 I have been involved in the challenges of workforce planning and staffing levels for AHPs and nursing for over 35 years, most recently during more than 15 years as the former Chief Executive Officer of the UK’s Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, with its 52,000 members.   Yet determining staffing levels is neither simple nor obvious, nor is there any standard, nationally or internationally agreed methodology in nursing, medicine or AHPs. If it was that simple, methods would have been agreed years ago.

Robert and Fiona’s book is a major step forward for the AHPs in dealing with the immediate challenges they face on staffing levels. It will equip managers and leaders of AHPs and other healthcare disciplines with the means to produce a well argued and credible set of proposals for senior healthcare management. Further national research over the next few years may possibly produce further methodologies, but to-day, this book is a very welcome and important addition to the literature which fills a gap for all AHP managers and leaders both nationally and internationally.

Phil Gray FCSP (Hon), MSc, BSc

Key Tools and Techniques in Management and Leadership of the Allied Health Professions

Dr Robert Jones and Dr Fiona Jenkins

This highly practical volume offers a wide range of assessment tools and techniques in such critical areas as management quality, organisational and management structure, benchmarking, outcome measurement, and Integrated Care Pathway design as well as capacity and demand management,activity analysis, report writing and presentation skills.  The layout is conducive to easy comprehension; tables, figures and boxed text aid quick reference and everyday application, and many of the resources are also provided on a complimentary CD.  With contributions from internationally renowned professionals Key tools and techniques in management and leadership of the allied health professions provides tools that will be vital to all allied health professionals interested in providing timely, efficient and cost-effective care for their patients.  These will include AHP managers and aspiring managers, senior clinicians, extended scope practitioners, clinical specialists, AHP educators, researchers, staff and students.’  For more information or to purchase the book,

ISBN 13:978 184619 5327

Published: Taylor Francis CRC Press

www.crcpress.com

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Managing Money, Measurement and Marketing in the Allied Health Professions

Dr Robert Jones and Dr Fiona Jenkins

High-quality Allied Health delivery through a motivated, committed and expert workforce depends on strong management and leadership. To provide this, Allied Health Profession managers need solid, evidence-based business skills just as much as clinical knowledge and ability.This book focuses on the key management areas of money, measurement and marketing as applied to the Allied Health Professions. Bringing together nationally and internationally acknowledged and recognised experts from around the world, it explains the finances of healthcare, particularly in a cash-strapped environment, information and information management, and the marketing of services – in the broadest sense – based on a robust foundation of business planning and business-case development, project management, service level agreements and specification. Report writing and presentation skills are also covered, along with editors’ quality and leadership evaluation framework, the Management Quality Matrix.The information, background and practical techniques covered in this book will make it a thought-provoking and indispensable resource both for managers and leaders of Allied Health Professionals and for those training future managers and leaders.Contents – The Jigsaw of Reform: Pushing the Parameters; Money, Money, Money: Fundamentals of Finance; Commissioning for Health Improvement: Policy and Practice; Striking the Agreement: Business Case and Service Level Agreements; Thriving In the Cash Strapped Organisation; Information is Power: Measure it, Manage it; Information Management for Healthcare Professionals, or What has IT ever done for us?; Allied Health Records in the Electronic Age; Data ‘Sanity’: Reducing Variation Outcome Measurement in Clinical Practice; Improving Access to Services: A practical approach to understanding demand and capacity to support service redesign; Benchmarking AHP services Management Quality and Operational Excellence; Evaluating Management Quality in the Allied Health Professions and Evaluation Matrix; Evaluating Clinical Performance in Healthcare Services with Data Envelopment Analysis; DEA Project Management for Allied Health Professionals with Real Jobs Marketing for AHPs Effective Report Writing Demonstrating Worth: Marketing and Impact Measurement Self – Referral

ISBN: 184619198X 

Published by Taylor & Francis CRCPress

www.crcpress.com

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Key Topics in Healthcare Management – Understanding the Big Picture

Dr Robert Jones and Dr Fiona Jenkins

This volume considers key topics for the AHPs, sets out various approaches and provides a range of information to enhance the evidence-base, knowledge, understanding and skills to support managers, leaders and clinicians. It assists in managing and leading services pro-actively, effectively and efficiently. With contributions from internationally renowned professionals, Key Topics in Health Care Management provides vital information for AHP managers and aspiring managers, senior clinicians, extended scope practitioners, clinical specialists, AHP educators, researchers, staff and students. It will also be invaluable for clinical scientists, pharmacists, optometrists and healthcare professionals working with AHPs throughout primary and secondary care.“Evidence-based management at its best. Excellently written with the AHP practitioner very much in mind. Will join the best standard texts for all of us who wish to understand and explore managing in today’s ever complex health services.”Gerry McSorley, Director, Centre for Health Improvement and Leadership, Visiting Professor in Healthcare Management and Leadership, University of Lincoln and President, Institute of Healthcare Management

ISBN: 1 85775 708

Published by Taylor & Francis CRCPress

www.crcpress.com

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Managing and Leading in the Allied Health Professions

 Dr Robert Jones and Dr Fiona Jenkins

This concise companion guides readers through current key management challenges, the structure of the NHS, legal matters, professional regulation, research and cultural issues. With contributions from internationally renowned professionals, Managing and Leading in the Allied Health Professions provides vital information for AHP managers and aspiring managers, senior clinicians, extended scope practitioners, clinical specialists, AHP educators, researchers, staff and students. It will also be invaluable for clinical scientists, pharmacists and optometrists.
“Allied health professionals operate in every setting in which healthcare is delivered. You have unparalleled opportunities to help patients to lead their own care and to see how services to patients, clients and carers can be improved across entire patient pathways, crossing traditional professional and organisational boundaries to improve patients’ experiences. I am sure that many of you, who have not previously considered yourselves as leaders will, when you have read these books, reconsider your roles and potential and take the next steps on your journeys.”Penny Humphris, Former Director, NHS Leadership Centre”

 ISBN: 1 85775 706 8 

Published by Taylor & Francis CRCPress

www.crcpress.com

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Developing the Allied Health Professional

 Dr Robert Jones and Dr Fiona Jenkins

This concise companion guides readers in the art of making the most of appraisals and how to recognise and utilise personality type indicators. It also covers topics such as e-learning, work-based learning, student placement and clinical supervision. “The engagement of clinicians in leading health services is of fundamental importance. Somewhat later than in many other countries, we are taking steps to ensure that we support and develop the skills and capabilities of clinical professionals for this aspect of their contribution. Of course, many clinicians, including the contributors to this book, have taken the initiative in their own development and that of their professional colleagues. I very much welcome this book with its practical advice and engaging approach to this important series of topics.” Bernard Crump, Chief Executive of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement

ISBN: 1 85775 707 6

Published by Taylor and Francis CRCPress

www.crcpress.com

Also available from Amazon