The Reasons Why Junior Doctors Are Striking

In the past two decades, a lot of changes have been characterised in the healthcare working systems. One of these changes has been the assimilation of shift work systems and the flexibility in work schedules. The need for 24 hour care makes the healthcare professions to work with different shift systems such as 12 h, 8 h, 9 h or 10 hour shifts. However, the common shift work systems divide a 24-h day in two (12-h) or three (8-h) shifts. Nonetheless, this requires the staff to be adapted with the various forms of shift work schedules.

The National health services (NHS) provides a comprehensive healthcare services across the entire nation. It is considered to be UK’s proudest institution, and is envied by many other countries because of its free of cost health delivery to its population. Nevertheless, it is often seen as a ‘political football’ as it affects all of us in some way and hence everyone carry an opinion about it (Cass, 2006). Factors such as government policies, funding, number of service users, taxation etc all make up small parts of this large complex organisation. Therefore, any imbalances within one sector can pose a substantial risk on the overall NHS (Wheeler & Grice, 2000). This essay will discuss whether the NHS aim of reducing the nations need

ANA rejects the adoption of overtime as a staffing solution and joints the Congress to establish national legislation to approach concerns about safe staffing and prohibition of mandatory overtime. ANA concludes that overtime is not a reasonable answer and has driven to various matters such as reduce patient satisfaction, an increase in adverse patient events, preventable medication, and medical errors and increased patient mortality. Besides, mandatory overtime reflects on job satisfaction, on nurse recruitment and retention, nurse fatigue and deficits in nurse’s work

Doctors were unwilling to join the NHS at first and this lead to a shortage of GP’s but with practice mangers being appointed and a change in the training of nurses, hospitals

Moreover, the office visit length will be shortened due to the high demand of customers making it harder to provide good quality of care to patients as well . On the other hand, from the physician point of view it is predictable that doctors will change practice patterns from private offices to hospital services because the facilities pay salaries with less expectations in the number of patients seen per day. Furthermore, due to the elevated number of patients, time left for clinical documentation and record keeping will be nulle.

In 1974 reform of the NHS seen eliminated the involvement of local authorities in health, set up community health councils, introduced area health authorities and changed the management of family doctor services (JISC 2015). The conservative Government reforms of the NHS bought much controversy, supporters claimed the reforms brought increased efficiency and effectiveness, but opponents said they undermined the founding principles of the health service (BBC 1999). However the spending cost of the NHS was a concern, with an ageing population and increase of new advance technology, experts said that the NHS needed above inflation increases of at least 1% a year simply to stand still (BBC 1999). The government, inspired by the Griffiths Report (1983), blamed disorganised management and structures within the NHS for the cash problems (BBC 1999). The National Health Service and Community Act of 1990 was the future explanation (BBC

A major issue in the medical career field is the demand for nurses and this, of course, means that these nurses will be working strenuous hours to meet the high demands. While this may satisfy some issues it also creates others. Longer hours results in exhausted nurses and this leads to negative patient outcomes.

In October 1998 the new European Working Time Directive was implemented. Its purpose was to prevent employers from expecting their employees to work excessively long hours. This meant that doctors were only allowed to work an average of 48 hours a week. As a result Registered Nurses had to take on tasks that were previously only performed by doctors taking them away from the patient’s bedside. In March

For some nurses, mandatory overtime can be an advantage due to financial instability but mostly mandatory overtime can cause fatigue, burnout, injuries, errors, inadequate sleep and deficits in performance. According to research working long hours which consists more than 40 hours a week or over 12 hours a day leads to an increased medication errors and patient mortality. The probability of making medication errors increases tremendously when nurses work longer than 12.5 hours a day. During surveys regarding reasons of overtime, 60 % of nurses stated that overtime was obligatory as part of their job, 29 % of nurses stated that they volunteered and 41% of nurses stated that they were “on call hours” (Bae, 2012)

The implementation of the European Time Working Directive (EWTD in respect of doctors in training (NCHDs) was adopted into Irish Law in 2004 and state that ideally the working week should be no longer than 48 hours. Restrictions on working hours represent a corresponding restriction on the amount of direct surgical practice a trainee can have and push us to explore other means of training that are more focused and efficient. Deliberate practise can offer a means of developing surgeons skills that is more time effective and does not rely on scheduled theatre hours.

With the new implemented laws, health care worker's dedication and good efforts would be rewarded with increased satisfaction at being better able to do their

Mandatory overtime in the field of nursing is described as forced overtime to maintain an adequate amount of staff present to meet the needs of the hospital. With a normal work schedule, a nurse usually works 12-hour shifts, usually three times a week. With the obligatory hours that are extended with overtime due to the continuation of nursing shortages, a nurse’s shift can be continued ranging from 12 to 16 hours, with very short notice. This mandatory action is related to putting not only nurses, but also patient’s health at risk. The advantages that accompany mandatory overtime are overshadowed by the disadvantages that surpass the benefits of working extended hours, therefore, mandatory overtime should not be allowed in the nursing work place.

* The importance of work life balance and related legislation concerning holidays, rest periods, working hours and night

In 2000, an effort was made by the UK government to resolve certain inequalities that had developed within the NHS by releasing the “NHS Plan of 2000.” This plan greatly increased spending on employee pay, infrastructure, and access to services. Despite almost doubling spending in a ten year period,

To provide high-quality care for the patient it is essential for the nursing staff to have enough time for recovery from long hours of demanding work. Eight-hour shifts for hospital nurses have become a standard of the past. Nowadays, 12-hour shifts for three days a week have become typical in most hospitals as recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (Stimpfel, Sloane & Aiken, 2012). The length of the shifts and the working days; however, are often unpredictable due to increased demand for patient care and high census episodes. Nursing shortages, along with a weak economy, have left hospital nurses with no choice, then to work extended hours and overtime. Long hour shifts, as well as mandatory overtime, has become an increasing