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themselves. However, the aims of the facilitator‘s network related to the
NHS Plan and Modernisation Agenda and now the political drivers are
somewhat different. These were:
― to support the roll out of the NHS Plan and Modernisation
Agenda in terms of Change Management and building a
flexible team based working environment
to offer facilitation as a means of generating creativity and
innovation to achieve our Trust‘s objectives
to offer facilitation as a means of supporting and developing
new and existing teams through team meetings, team time
out and team away sessions and service improvements‖
(Trust Document).
Do staff no longer need these aims to support their practice endeavours?
As Jane‘s story of the name badges highlighted, some managers‘
responses seem inappropriate to staff requests and showed the system to
be rigid creating walls where these need not exist. Hence it does not use
or allow the communication and wisdom from the bedside to flow up
through the organisation in a meaningful way. And Nina‘s story showed
how a needs assessment review of nurses‘ training is required in the
workplace because unrealistic expectations are placed on staff. This
should not be a blanket approach but one that allows staff some choice to
meet the needs of their service and nurses need to have some control
over this; not be Done To by others who do not necessarily understand the
difficulties and complexities of nursing poorly patients on a daily basis.
Hopefully this will happen as a consequence of the recently established
NHS Constitution which aims to provide staff with personal development
and access to appropriate training, while involving them in decisions
(Santry, 2009a). However, I am somewhat sceptical that this will be the
case, given the historical patterns already highlighted.
In the ward the time saving device of care planning has had other
unintended consequences by reducing nurses‘ direct contact with their
patients and encouraging them not to assess and think about the care they
deliver. The staffing shortages and external political drivers (wider field of
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