Lessons from the frontline: the impact of redeployment during COVID-19 on nurse wellbeing, performance and retention
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN18172749 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN18172749 |
| Secondary identifying numbers | NIHR132041 |
- Submission date
- 28/09/2020
- Registration date
- 30/10/2020
- Last edited
- 14/10/2024
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Other
Plain English Summary
Background and study aims
During the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS staff moved to different roles and units (redeployed) in large numbers to meet changing demands of the service. At times, this has meant that staff were working in unfamiliar environments doing unfamiliar tasks. With regard to nurses (the largest proportion of the workforce), some have been asked to work in more risky settings, while others have been pulled off patient-facing duties because they are in an 'at-risk' group. Rapid guidance was published by NHS England/Improvement on how to manage the redeployment of staff who were likely to be working outside their 'comfort zone' and how to do this while ensuring safe practice. This advice included having appropriate supervision and considering health and wellbeing. However, when planning how best to redeploy and support staff during this crisis (at national, organisational and ward level) there has been very little research evidence for senior staff to draw on. Moreover, there is no existing research on the long-term impact of different kinds of redeployment on staff outcomes: wellbeing, performance and retention. This is vital because nursing shortages are already a serious problem in the UK and so we need to know how best to support staff so that they are able to provide safe, effective and compassionate care. This programme of research addresses these gaps in knowledge. Two different work packages are planned which, together, will provide a much better understanding of how to plan for and manage redeployment of nurses and how to support them during, and in the aftermath of, a period of redeployment. This knowledge will be useful for routine service delivery, where creating a more flexible NHS workforce is now a national priority and so redeployment may become more common, as well as for planning more specifically in a pandemic or other crisis situation.
In work package 1 the aim is to examine how decisions were made in the redeployment of nursing staff, based on an ethical framework and the barriers and enablers to doing this. In work package 2 the aim is to understand how nurses made sense of redeployment and how this affected their longer-term job performance and well-being. The researchers will work with key stakeholders (e.g. Royal College of Nursing, NHS England/NHS Improvement, NHS Employers) to share learning to inform future planning of redeployment strategies for nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Who can participate?
Work package 1: senior staff such as senior nurses and HR managers who were responsible for decision making about how, where and when staff were redeployed
Work package 2: nurses involved in different forms of redeployment
What does the study involve?
The study will involve working with three NHS Trusts to identify staff to take part in interviews, focus groups and surveys across both work packages. In the first work package the researchers will interview up to 11 senior staff and run one focus group involving five senior nurses in each of the three sites. In the second work package the researchers will conduct interviews and short surveys at three timepoints with up to 15 nurses from each site.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
There are no known risks or benefits to participants but during data gathering some nurses may become upset when recollecting negative experiences of redeployment. Some may also benefit from taking part through having the opportunity to tell their story confidentially and reflect on the positive experience, for example, where new relationships have formed and new skills and knowledge gained.
Where is the study run from?
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UK)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
October 2020 to September 2022
Who is funding the study?
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (UK)
Who is the main contact?
Prof. Rebecca Lawton
r.j.lawton@leeds.ac.uk
Contact information
Scientific
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
| Phone | +44 (0)113 3435715 |
|---|---|
| r.j.lawton@leeds.ac.uk |
Scientific
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Bradford
BD9 6RJ
United Kingdom
 ORCID ID |
0000-0003-0563-0020 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +44 (0)1274 383667 |
| jenni.murray@bthft.nhs.uk |
Study information
| Study design | Multicentre observational study involving three NHS Trust sites using both qualitative cross-sectional (first work package) and longitudinal (second work package) interviewing and survey methods |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Observational |
| Secondary study design | Cross-sectional (first work package) and longitudinal (second work package) study |
| Study setting(s) | Hospital |
| Study type | Other |
| Participant information sheet | Not available in web format, please use the contact details to request a participant information sheet |
| Scientific title | Lessons from the frontline: the impact of redeployment during COVID-19 on nurse wellbeing, performance and retention - a multicentre observational study |
| Study acronym | Redeploy |
| Study hypothesis | Delivering safe and effective healthcare requires sufficient staff numbers with the right mix of skills. Thus the rapid redeployment of nursing staff has been critical to the NHS response to COVID-19. The NIHR have recognised the significance of these changes and the challenges of rapidly reallocating staff without evidence on how best to do this or what the longer term consequences are. This study directly addresses this evidence gap. |
| Ethics approval(s) | Approved 03/12/2020, Business, Environment and Social Sciences Faculty Research Ethics Committee at the University of Leeds (Leeds University Business School, Maurice Keyworth Building, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK; +44 (0)113 343 6831; researchethics@leeds.ac.uk), ref: AREA20-041 |
| Condition | Nurse wellbeing, performance and retention |
| Intervention | This observational study will involve two work packages. The first will employ cross-sectional semi-structured interviews and focus groups with staff between November 2020 and July 2021. The second work package will use a longitudinal approach conducting semi-structured interviews and surveys with staff affected by redeployment over three timepoints between December 2020 and January 2022. |
| Intervention type | Other |
| Primary outcome measure | Management of redeployment (as a main qualitative theme) assessed using interviews and focus groups between November 2020 and July 2021 |
| Secondary outcome measures | 1. Nurse wellbeing assessed using interviews and surveys between December 2020 and January 2022 2. Job outcomes for nurses assessed using interviews and surveys between December 2020 and January 2022 |
| Overall study start date | 01/10/2020 |
| Overall study end date | 30/09/2022 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Health professional |
|---|---|
| Age group | Adult |
| Sex | Both |
| Target number of participants | For work package 1: Up to 48 staff members. For work package 2: Up to 45 nurses |
| Total final enrolment | 101 |
| Participant inclusion criteria | Work package 1: Senior nurses (e.g. matrons, Heads of Nursing, Directors of Nursing) and senior HR Managers with experience of managing redeployment during COVID-19. Work package 2: Nurses who were redeployed to high-risk environments (e.g. ICU, respiratory wards; nurses already working in high-risk environments who acquired redeployed staff and; nurse redeployed to lower risk environments (i.e. non-patient-facing for health reasons). |
| Participant exclusion criteria | Does not meet inclusion criteria |
| Recruitment start date | 23/11/2020 |
| Recruitment end date | 05/01/2022 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- England
- United Kingdom
Study participating centre
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Hospital/treatment centre
Duckworth Lane
Bradford
BD9 6RJ
England
United Kingdom
| Phone | +44 (0)1274 38 2575 |
|---|---|
| jane.dennison@bthft.nhs.uk | |
| Website | https://www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk/ |
"ROR" |
https://ror.org/05gekvn04 |
Funders
Funder type
Government
Government organisation / National government
- Alternative name(s)
- National Institute for Health Research, NIHR Research, NIHRresearch, NIHR - National Institute for Health Research, NIHR (The National Institute for Health and Care Research), NIHR
- Location
- United Kingdom
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | 01/10/2023 |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | No |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Data sharing statement to be made available at a later date |
| Publication and dissemination plan | The researchers intend to disseminate their findings through a number of means. They anticipate publishing their academic findings from the two work packages in relevant high-impact peer-reviewed journals as well as an accessible short report for Nursing Times, specifically targeting their key audience. They will also hold a stakeholder engagement workshop towards the end of the study period and produce a handbook outlining guidelines for managing redeployment going forward. |
| IPD sharing plan | The data-sharing plans for the current study are unknown and will be made available at a later date. |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol file | version 4 | 12/08/2021 | 06/01/2022 | No | No |
| Results article | 27/05/2024 | 13/06/2024 | Yes | No | |
| Results article | 21/09/2024 | 14/10/2024 | Yes | No |
Additional files
Editorial Notes
14/10/2024: Publication reference added.
13/06/2024: Publication reference added.
04/04/2023: The following changes were made to the trial record:
1. The overall trial end date has been changed from 31/03/2022 to 30/09/2022 and the plain English summary updated accordingly.
2. The total final enrolment was changed from 116 to 101.
3. The intention to publish date was changed from 01/06/2023 to 01/10/2023.
4. Participating trial centres Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal London Hospital were removed.
05/10/2022: The following changes were made to the trial record:
1. The total final enrolment was changed from 106 to 116.
2. The intention to publish date was changed from 01/09/2022 to 01/06/2023.
11/02/2022: The acronym has been changed from Redploy to Redeploy.
02/02/2022: The target number of participants has been changed from "For work package 1: Up to 48 staff members. For work package 2: Up to 45 nurses" to "For work package 1: Up to 48 staff members. For work package 2: Up to 60 nurses" and the total target enrolment has been changed from 93 to 108.
06/01/2022: The following changes were made to the trial record:
1. Uploaded protocol (not peer-reviewed) as an additional file.
2. The recruitment end date was changed from 30/01/2022 to 05/01/2022.
3. The intention to publish date was changed from 31/03/2022 to 01/09/2022.
4. The total final enrolment was added.
5. The trial website was added.
18/12/2020: The trial participating centre Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust was corrected to the Royal London Hospital.
08/12/2020: Ethics approval details added.
29/09/2020: Trial's existence confirmed by the NIHR.
