Workplace wins

CSP health and safety rep Sarah Jones, and stewards Katy Walkers & Jacqui Isaac at the Walton Centre NHS Trust worked with their members in the use of the CSP’s ‘pinpoint the pressure’ survey to see what areas they wanted to highlight.

Sarah said: ‘We had 34 physiotherapists complete the survey which equated to a return rate of 50 per cent from CSP members.

Over 80 per cent said that they experienced stress.’ Key themes were:

• staffing – vacancies, recruitment and retention.
• lack of space.
• throughput pressures, with increased complexity of patients being seen.
• relationships with our wider multidisciplinary team.
• staying late/working over paid hours.

‘Once we had our data, we set up a feedback and discussion meeting for members and further points were fed back to our therapy manager, who responded with plans including additional meeting with the wider trust regarding therapy space (staffside already in wider discussions) as well as projects looking at staffing establishments. We’ve set up a “suggestion box” in our acute and rehab setting, and another survey will be completed in 12 months so we can monitor the impact of our trust’s initiatives.’