The majority of nurses thought there were not enough staff

More than half of nurses working in Scotland are “too busy” to provide patients with the standard of care they would like to, a union has claimed.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said its study also found 51% of nurses thought there were not enough staff to meet patients’ needs.

While 44% of those who responded thought patient care was compromised “at least once a week”.

A total of 1,400 nurses across Scotland were questioned in the RCN survey.

The study found that 52% of nurses said they were unable to give patients as much care as they would like to because of the demands on their time.

RCN figures showed that patient numbers had increased from 6.7 per registered nurse on average in 2007 to 7.2 this year.

We know that when there are not enough nurses, patient care suffers, as the results from this survey show Theresa Fyffe RCN Scotland

RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said the body was “concerned” about the survey’s findings.

For more information about Royal College of Nursing survey