Radiology departments across Scotland are currently challenged with increasing workload demands together with 24/7 service sustainability. Planned care must be aligned with unscheduled care to ensure equity of access for all patient groups. In addition to the workload, government and local policies have altered the pattern of healthcare provision and thus the spread of referrals throughout the 24 hour period. Nationally there is a move to redesign radiographic out of hours (OOH) duties to respond to government policies with consideration to the subsequent effect on core hours arrangements. This is hoped to aid recruitment and retention. There is, however, no structured model that defines the staff resource required in general radiography for an unscheduled workload. This is an essential component in determining the resource required to meet the needs of a 24/7 service. This study aimed to ) develop a model that encompassed a defined staff resource per workload and embedded this resource in an application that provides satisfactory 24/7 service cover. A detailed workload analysis of a data extract from the radiology information system (RIS) was undertaken to comprehend workload patterns and trends in the principal study centre. A workpattern model was developed by deductive analysis and reasoning of the data derived from the above evaluation. This determined the staff resource required dependent on the workload. The workforce profile was determined by-means of the principle of crew pairing to determine skill mix. Applications of this model over 24/7 were explored: the theory of adaptive planning was employed to describe the staff resource required for general radiography across the 24 hour period dependent on the non-deterministic nature of the workload while responding to cost effective patient management. The findings were extrapolated in case studies of the principal study centre, a teaching centre and an urban general hospital. An attitude survey was undertaken in the three case study centres, (rural, urban and teaching centres) with differing workload streams relevant to the characteristics of the different centres. Radiographer attitudes to this workpattern model and modular application were evaluated by likert scale responses. This investigated whether they considered that the model and application would be appropriate in centres of differing characteristics and also whether there " are currently sufficient numbers and the appropriate grades of staff to support the model. Attitudes to the effect of the model on radiographers personal development plans and work life balance was also evaluated. The workpattern model developed allows a structure to be imposed on the staffing resource required dependent on local workload statistics. Thus this model could be applied to all hospitals regardless of characteristics. The modular application is flexible and therefore suits local adaptive planning, meeting the needs of the 24/7 service.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:572798 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Hawke, Fiona A. |
| Publisher | Glasgow Caledonian University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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