Policy News - 7 August 2022

The following policies have recently been ratified by the Trust’s Policy Committee.   Please take the time to review those which may be relevant to your role.  

Medical Devices Training Policy

The purpose of this policy is to provide a framework to ensure all staff who use medical devices are competent to operate them safely and effectively within their scope of practice. This will include practical knowledge and the theory of the device functions. Staff must also complete the relevant training documentation associated with the policy. If any practice falls outside of this policy it must be reported as an incident.

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Health & Social Care Professional Registration Policy

The purpose of the policy is to provide clear standards, policy and procedures to ensure that all professional registrations are checked, both on appointment and on an on-going basis throughout employment, including the implications of lapsed registration.   It also provides assurance, that whilst it is an individual employee’s responsibility to ensure that they are registered with the relevant regulatory body at all times, the Trust will have systems in place to check the registration status of staff before and during employment to identify any lapsed registrations and take appropriate action.

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Falls – The Prevention and Management of Hospital-Based Falls Policy  

Falls in hospitals are the most commonly reported patient safety incident, therefore the prevention and management of falls in hospital is a key patient safety priority for the Trust. 

This policy outlines the requirements and responsibilities regarding the prevention of inpatient falls, through evidence based and multi-factorial risk assessment and intervention. Where patients in our hospitals do experience a fall, standardised post fall care, treatment and diagnosis aims to limit the impact of any injuries sustained as a result of the fall.  

The review of this policy has enabled a number of changes from the previous version; these include: 

• Inclusion of paediatric patients (> 1 year) 
• Addition of roles and responsibilities of Falls Review Panel 
• Inclusion of Enhanced Interactive Care and Observation as a falls prevention intervention 
• Removal of falls technology i.e. falls sensors, as a falls prevention intervention across acute sites 
• Post Fall Protocol updated and Red Amber Green (RAG) rated to facilitate identification of the required actions dependent on suspected or known injury 
• In appendices, the process for recording Lying and Standing Blood Pressure and Bedside Vision assessments, as well as cognitive screening assessment. 
• Bed Rails guidance within appendices, replacing the need for separate guidance.                           

This policy applies to all clinical staff including locums, agency and staff on honorary contracts and those staff with roles relating to patient care working across inpatient services. 

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Support for Employees with Caring Responsibilities Policy

The purpose of this policy is to provide a framework for the provision of carers leave that is compliant with all relevant legislation, guidelines and NHS best practice standards.

The Trust recognises that the needs of carers in employment are varied and    individual.  This means that some employees may have long term or permanent caring responsibilities for a family member, partner, or friend. The need to care can sometimes occur suddenly and unplanned, often unpredictable and demanding and can lead to long term responsibilities with increasing dependency. 

This policy is one of the many practical policies in the Trust which enables employees to give of their best at work whilst at the same time undertaking carer responsibilities outside work. It also ensures they have the level and type of support they need to do their jobs effectively, whilst enabling them to carry out carer responsibilities.  The policy details support available for carers and when carers leave [for planned support or emergency support] could be granted.

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Employee Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy

This policy, which applies to all employees, has been developed in conjunction with our Health and Wellbeing Group, staff networks, health and safety and trade union colleagues.  The purpose of the policy is to:

• describe the Trust’s approach to supporting employee mental health and wellbeing and the processes for stress risk assessments based on the HSE’s Stress Management Standards 2014;
• increase knowledge and understanding about the advice and support available to employees, to prevent mental health problems;
• ensure consistency and equity in how employees who have mental health problems are managed;
• ensure early identification of mental health problems so that appropriate support is provided and action taken to address the causes; and
• describe the training and support available to managers to help them complete team stress risk assessments and individual work/life stress risk assessments if recommended.

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Staff Substance Misuse Policy

This policy has been updated to replace the former Drug and Alcohol Policy. Its purpose is to ensure staff are aware of the Trust’s position in relation to substance misuse and ensure staff health, safety and wellbeing is supported in the interest of protecting patients and service users' safety 

It provides a framework to enable cases of drug, alcohol and substance misuse to be handled in a fair and consistent way.  It actively promotes awareness and understanding of the potential dangers of substance misuse for both the individual’s health and work performance and to encourage those with a problem to seek help. 

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