What NHS staff in Swansea Bay think about their jobs

Compassionate patient care, teamwork, and a willingness to go the extra mile rated strongly in a staff survey Swansea Bay University Health Board but concerns about staffing capacity rose and fewer of those who responded looked forward to going to work or felt valued. Just under 3,000 of the health board’s employees filled in the annual NHS Wales survey, which a report said was 19% of the workforce. It was a lot more compared to the previous year’s survey but across Wales the response rate was 30%. The in-depth survey covered many topics such as patient safety, morale, time pressures, whether staff felt they could speak up, and whether they’d be happy with the standard of care provided if a friend or relative needed treatment. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here The health board heard more about the results at a meeting and was briefed on proposals to address the top three priorities, which were to “stabilise the perception of workforce capacity” and reduce workload pressures, rebuild organisational trust partly by improving staff involvement in change, and improve the cultural environment. Another aim is to increase the staff response rate to 30% for next year’s survey. Tina Ricketts, executive director of workforce and organisational development, said as a line manager she valued staff feedback as it enabled her to try and improve their working life. She said staff reported feeling supported by their immediate team but lacked confidence in wider organisational decision-making and leadership and that fewer employees felt pride in the health board or recommended it as a place to work. “What that says to me is that we continue to see the learned helplessness culture and pockets of low levels of trust,” she said. She recommended an “intentional culture change programme” to address this and said a report with options would be prepared in the coming weeks. Chief executive Abigail Harris said the health board knew how important it was to have engaged staff. She said : “Everywhere we go we do hear this issue about: ‘We don’t have enough resource to do what we want to do.'” She said the health board wasn’t alone in this and that its scores were “not way off” compared to others in Wales. Ms Harris said it was important to have a workplace where staff could come in as “their best self and perform to their best effect”. She also said the health board’s successes should be recognised. “I think there are lots of brilliant things happening day in day out,” she said. “We need to make sure we’re getting that balance right as well in terms of our communication out to staff.”