Inpatient Experience Survey 2018: national results

7. Staff

Summary

• Overall, people were very positive about their experiences of hospital staff, with a slight increase in the overall positive rating to 91 per cent.
• People also mostly agreed that the care that they received from staff was person-centred, although people were slightly less positive about being in control of their treatment (76 per cent agreed), and being able to involve people that matter to them (77 per cent agreed).
• Seventy eight per cent of people said that they were always treated with compassion and understanding during their hospital stay, which is an increase of four percentage points from 2016. Three per cent said that they were not.
• People were also generally positive about the co-ordination of care whilst in hospital. When asked if staff worked well together in organising care, 72 per cent said "yes, definitely". A further 22 per cent said "yes, to some extent".

Overall

People continue to be very positive about their overall experiences of hospital staff, with 91 per cent rating staff as "excellent" or "good". This is a slight increase on the result in the 2016 survey.

Figure 7.1 : Overall rating of staff, 2018

Figure 7.2 : Overall positive rating of staff

NOTE: Data for the 2010 to 2012 surveys have not been weighted to account for non-response and so are not directly comparable to the 2014 to 2018 surveys.

Person centred care

Respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with various statements related to person-centred behaviours they experienced during their hospital stay. The results are shown in Figure 7.3.

People were most positive about being listened to, with 88 per cent of people saying that staff listened if they had any questions or concerns. They were least positive about staff helping them to feel in control of their treatment and care and staff giving them the opportunity to involve the people that mattered to them (76 per cent and 77 per cent respectively agreed with these statements).

Figure 7.3 : Summary of responses to person-centred care statements, 2018

Seventy-eight per cent of people said that they were always treated with compassion and understanding during their hospital stay, which is an increase of four percentage points from 2016. Nineteen percent said that they were sometimes treated this way, and three per cent said that they were not.

Continuity of care

People were also generally positive about the co-ordination of care whilst in hospital. When asked if staff worked well together in organising care, 72 per cent said "yes, definitely". A further 22 per cent said "yes, to some extent".

We asked people how many times hospital staff asked them for their personal details. Almost half (49 per cent) said "a few times". Thirty per cent said "A lot of times and this didn't bother me" and four per cent said "A lot of times and this bothered me". The remainder said they were never asked (five per cent) or that they didn't know or couldn't remember (12 per cent).