Nursing & Midwifery Planning Project, Research Paper Example

This paper examines the Nursing and Midwifery workload & Workforce planning project as produced by the Scottish Executive Health Department. (Department, 2004).  The report puts into context where nursing and midwifery planning resides in the context of the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland. The paper addresses the following key issues: (i) How well services are planned across multi-disciplinary teams in order to meet patient needs (ii) How well resources are deployed and the planning of same (iii) How workload and work force planning are balanced in order to meet patient needs and (iv) what additional work is required in order to improve the NHS in Scotland.

This is an extremely valuable report presented to the Minister of Health and Community Care in the United Kingdom. Several important stakeholders have contributed to the overall quality of the report. An action plan was developed providing 8 key themes in order to retain the services of nurses and midwives in Scotland.

1. Careers
2. Leadership
3. Flexibility
4. Education and Training
5. Working conditions and tools for the job
6. Employment packages
7. Research and Evaluation
8. New roles

The Audit Scotland report indicated the need for improved workforce planning in the following medical areas: Acute Medical Receiving, Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Continuing care of the elderly, and old age psychiatry.

Although the report is fairly high level, nevertheless it is an extremely comprehensive report and contains a holistic picture over a large organizational infrastructure. The report gets to grips with identifying the key problem areas with empirical research and acute observations from principal stakeholders within the NHS.  The Steering Group was particularly well represented from a diverse group of stakeholders and as such captured a diverse set of viewpoints.  The Appendix contained excellent use of tables and tabulation of results.

Works Cited

Department, S. E. (2004). Nursing & Midwifery Planning Project. Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish Executive Health Department.