New Education and Practice Standards for Care Home Nurses Launched

There has been a realisation across the health and care sector that nursing staff working in care homes support a unique area of practice and a very high level of responsibility in delivering care in settings that are complex and can involve multiple issues of physical and mental health dependency among residents. This has been brought into even sharper focus by the pandemic and we have seen a greater focus on care homes than ever before in the past year. Government and system leaders realise that care homes are at the very centre of the health and social care system in every community in the UK and touch the lives of millions of individuals and families.

Our nurses in adult social care have been absolutely instrumental in helping our sector keep the people we work with safe and well during the pandemic. We still have high vacancy rates for nurses so these new standards will help attract Registered Nurses to choose to work in care homes and make a smooth transition into roles that we know offer a huge degree of professional and personal job satisfaction.

The new standards are a very welcome addition to the knowledge base of nurses working in the Care Home sector. I would like to thank all those who worked in partnership to deliver this project; it is a significant achievement that will help support high standards of learning, leadership and care delivery in Care Homes across the country.

The QNI has always recognised Care Home Nurses as highly valued members of the community nursing family. For the last five years we have focussed many of our programmes of work on supporting this workforce and providing opportunities for professional development. The well-established national QNI Care Home Nurse Network (supported by the RCN Foundation and the CNO for England) is a dynamic place for all Care Home Nurses to share and learn. Members of our network were vital to the development of the standards being launched today. I had the privilege of chairing the reference group for the standards development - a deeply committed group of nurses who shared the values of the QNI and were dedicated to supporting excellent care for each and every one of their residents. My thanks to them for their expert guidance and to NHSE/I for the funding which made it possible.