Project title
SMARTSTAFF: Safety, Mental health, And ReTention of healthcare Staff in UK prisons
Country
UK
Background
Prisons are challenging environments to work in, leading to major concerns about staff safety and pressures on their mental health. Considerable research has been carried out on these matters for prison officers, but prison healthcare staff have been largely overlooked. Healthcare staff face the usual strains of working in under-resourced NHS settings, with additional pressures, including threatening and abusive behaviour, lack of security, pressure to agree to inappropriate treatment demands, and lack of opportunities to interact with colleagues and build team dynamics.
Retention of healthcare staff is poor in the UK, leading to an over-reliance on agency staff, particularly in nursing teams. This leads to an enormous cost for taxpayers and less effective delivery of healthcare. It also contributes to difficulties in establishing morale and good working relationships, which are essential for building effective teams.
Summary
In this study, we will investigate the mental health, safety, and job satisfaction of UK prison healthcare staff. We will use a series of validated scales, including a general health questionnaire, the Positive Mental Health Questionnaire (PMHQ) for healthcare workers, the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), and Satisfaction of Employees in Health Care (SEHC) survey, to get staff ratings on these issues. We will explore possible differences between healthcare professions, demographic factors, and types of prison. In a smaller group of participants, we will do extended interviews to explore the issues in more depth, using open ended questions in a semi-structured interview format.
Outcome
The outcomes of this work will provide the first detailed insights into safety, mental wellbeing, and job satisfaction in prison healthcare staff. Together, these data streams will help guide initiatives to address the critical issue of the retention of prison healthcare staff, which is a source of considerable strain and cost on NHS systems. We will use both quantitative and qualitative information to identify important themes for future research, for example, mental health support, safety interventions, and initiatives to build job satisfaction and morale. The long-term impact of this work could be invaluable in improving the wellbeing and safety of healthcare staff in this critical area of NHS services.