Tuesday 5 February 2013

What the Francis Report should say part 2 - breaking out of the bubble #midstaffs

Another post on the inevitable.

Yesterday, I was reading the account of @shaunlintern   eloquently describing the heart wrenching testimony of those who watched their relatives suffer and die in the face of appalling cruelty by nursing and other staff.
I asked my wife, a senior nurse, why on earth were there so many nurses in this one institution behaving in this fashion? It just beggars belief - it is because, she said, that kind of behaviour became the norm for the whole hospital.
When you live and work inside an impenetrable bubble and have no idea about norms outside that bubble, everyone eventually behaves in a fashion that might seems normal to them but is bizarre and wrong to outsiders. Therein lies the tragedy of Stafford Hospital - there were many people and organisations who entered the bubble, observed odd cruel behaviour, screwed their noses, left and did nothing about it.
The NHS tries to disseminate good practice through specialist web sites and newletters. This clearly is not enough - staff have to physically spend time at places where good practice and srong clinical governance is the norm. Maybe that is what is needed  - an NHS wide rotation of staff at all levels so that behaviour like that exhibited by the staff at Stafford hospital never ever again becomes the norm. 

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