NICE is developing a guideline on safe staffing for nursing in adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals.

All registered stakeholders for the above guideline are invited to comment on the provisional recommendations via the website during a 4 week consultation.

NICE encourages comments from stakeholders to assist us with guidelines. If you wish to make comments we recommend that if you are not already a registered stakeholder organisation you can register on the website, or if you are an individual you can contact a registered stakeholder organisation that most closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them. If you are an individual and are unable or do not wish to pass your comments to a registered stakeholder organisation, you can still comment on this consultation. Please see the information below.

Please note - the provisional recommendations presented here do not constitute NICE's formal guideline on this topic. The recommendations are provisional and may change after consultation.

This consultation takes place between Monday 12 May - Tuesday 10 June 2014

Consultation documents

Draft guideline

Stakeholder comments proforma

Points to consider in the consultation

• Points or areas that are not covered, but which appear to fall within the scope of the guideline
• Potential inconsistencies or any disagreement with the Safe Staffing Advisory Committee's interpretation of the evidence
• The practical value of the provisional recommendations
• Issues of style, format and readability
• Whether the guideline could be changed to better promote equality of opportunity relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. In answering this question, please include details of:
  • Which particular parts of the guideline you think affect equality of opportunity?
  • Why and how you think equality of opportunity is affected?

How to submit your comments

Responses to the draft guideline documents must be submitted using the comments proforma (Word version only, PDFs not accepted) ensuring all relevant fields are completed.

Completed comment proformas must be returned to safestaffingSH@nice.org.uk by 5pm on 10 June 2014 at the very latest in order to be considered.

If you are an individual who wishes to comment we strongly recommend that you contact a registered stakeholder organisation that most closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them. If you are unable or do not wish to do this, you can still comment using the proforma below. Unfortunately NICE does not have the resources to respond to comments from a large number of individuals or local organisations. Individuals cannot register as stakeholders.

NICE is unable to accept:

• Comments from non-registered organisations - if you wish your comments to be considered please register your organisation as a stakeholder via the NICE website.
• Comments received after the consultation deadline (5pm on 10 June 2014)
• Comments that are not on the correct proforma
• More than one response proforma per stakeholder organisation
• Confidential information or other material that you would not wish to be made public
• Personal medical information about yourself or another person from which your or the person's identity could be ascertained
• Comments forms with attachments such as research articles, letters or leaflets will not be accepted.

What will happen to your comments:

• All eligible comments (with the exception of personal, individual comments and late comments)will be collated at the end of the consultation and then reviewed by the NICE team and Safe Staffing Advisory Committee
• Comments from registered stakeholders and nominated expert reviewers ONLY will be formally responded to and posted on the NICE website when the final; guideline is published
• No action will be taken upon receipt of personal, individual comments, comments from non-registered organisations and late comments

PLEASE NOTE: NICE reserves the right to summarise and edit comments received during consultations, or not to publish them at all, where in the reasonable opinion of NICE, the comments are voluminous, publication would be unlawful or publication would be otherwise inappropriate.

Comments received in the course of consultations carried out by NICE are published in the interests of openness and transparency, and to promote understanding of how recommendations are developed. The comments are published as a record of the submissions that NICE has received, and are not endorsed by NICE, its officers or advisory committees.

Supporting evidence

The following evidence was used by the Safe Staffing Advisory Committee in developing the provisional recommendations and available for information:

• Scope: Safe nurse staffing of adult wards in acute hospitals
• Evidence review 1: Griffiths P, Ball J, Drennan J, Jones J, Reccio-Saucedo A, Simon M (2014) The association between patient safety outcomes and nurse/healthcare assistant skill mix and staffing levels and factors that may influence staffing requirements. University of Southampton
• Evidence review 2: Simon M, Ball J, Drennan J, Jones J, Reccio-Saucedo A, Griffiths P (2014) Effectiveness of management approaches and organisational factors on nurse sensitive outcomes. University of Southampton
• Economic analysis: Cookson G, McGovern A (2014) The cost effectiveness of nurse staffing and skill mix on nurse sensitive outcomes. University of Surrey
• Expert paper 1: Expert testimony presented to the Safe Staffing Advisory Committee
• Expert paper 2: Patient testimony presented to the Safe Staffing Advisory Committee
• Expert paper 3: Safe nurse staffing of adult wards in acute hospitals - report from the Safe Staffing Advisory Committee sub-group meeting 11 April 2014

Anticipated final guideline publication date: 15 July 2014

More information on NICE´s guideline development process