Guide launched to develop nurses’ business skills
UK – The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has launched a new guide to help nurses understand business and financial practices in the country’s National Health Service (NHS).
The RCN reports that Nurses’ Business: ‘An introduction to costing and coding healthcare’ has been put together with the help of frontline nurses, NHS managers and financial experts to provide nurses with the tools they need to thrive and survive in the modern NHS.
Topics covered in the RCN guide include:
- The concept of ‘Payment by Results’
- Bidding for extra money or a new project
- Understanding clinical coding.
Dr Peter Carter, RCN General Secretary said: ‘Business skills and clinical skills are two sides of the nursing coin. Nurses work in a huge range of healthcare settings and not only are they delivering patient care, but they are also major players in delivering change. Nurses need the skills to make a business case for keeping a particular service or saving a specific post and better business skills would also enable nurses to better shape and lead the modernisation process. I hope this guide helps demystify the financial and business practices in the NHS and, by doing so, gives nurses the confidence to stand up and speak out about the business decisions affecting their workplaces and their patients.’
The guide can be downloaded from: http://www.rcn.org.uk/publications/pdf/003187.pdf
This article was published on 10/30/2007