Staff care: How to engage staff in the NHS and why it matters
15 January 2014 Evidence
Topics and programmes
Our inaugural report argues that caring about the people who work in healthcare is the key to developing a caring and compassionate health service. More than that, it puts the case that supporting staff should be a central driver in efforts to improve patient care, productivity and financial performance.
The report, which reviewed evidence from a wide range of sources, highlights that:
- Patient satisfaction is consistently higher in trusts with better rates of staff health and wellbeing
- There is a link between higher staff satisfaction and lower rates of mortality and hospital-acquired infection
- The NHS could save £555 million a year if it reduced sickness absence by a third
- Stress and burnout are more frequent in the NHS than in other sectors.
Approximately 30% of sickness absence in the NHS is due to stress. It points out that NHS staff engagement fell for three consecutive years from 2009 before rising very slightly in 2012. Only 55% of staff would recommend their organisation as a place to work.