New nursing workforce standards outline what’s needed to ensure services are properly staffed, safety is prioritised, and nursing professionals are supported to perform their best.

Created by the Royal College of Nursing, the standards set out what must happen within workplaces to ensure the delivery of safe and effective patient care.

The 14 standards – the first of their kind – have been designed for use by those who fund, plan, commission, design, review and provide services which require a nursing workforce.

The standards, which apply across the whole of the UK and to every setting where nursing care is delivered, are being launched as new polling reveals seven in 10 people believe there are too few nurses to provide safe care. Of the 1,752 members of the public who were surveyed, more than a quarter said they felt themselves or their families may not get the care required when needed.

The standards are grouped into three themes. They are:

• Responsibility and accountability – outlining where the responsibility and accountability lie within an organisation for setting, reviewing, and taking decisions and action on staffing levels and skill mix.
• Clinical leadership and safety – outlining the needs of nurse leaders with professional responsibility for teams, their role in workforce planning and the professional development of staff.
• Health, safety and wellbeing – outlining what’s needed to support nursing staff to provide the highest quality of care, including safe shift working, the ability to raise concerns and the right to work in a safe environment that prioritises staff well-being.

Pat Cullen, acting chief executive of the RCN, said: “The shortage of nursing staff across all specialties, in the NHS and independent sector, compromises patient safety. We are acting to address this by setting standards that represent the gold standard in workforce planning and management.

“There are so many examples of excellent delivery of care and for the first time, we have set out our expectations so we can ensure that these standards of care are consistent across the UK. Nursing is the largest safety critical profession in health care and it’s vital that we have the right staff, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.”