December 2014
Featured in this insight: Medical & healthcare
Half of NHS nursing staff do not know how to deal with Ebola patients, survey finds: A recent survey by nursingtimes.net has found that approximately half of nursing staff (48 per cent) do not know how to deal with Ebola patients.
The survey, of 750 nurses, questioned staff about whether they had received training on how to deal with a suspected Ebola patient. They also asked them whether they had received any training on how to protect themselves from Ebola, whilst treating a patient displaying symptoms of the disease.
Of those questioned, just 22 per cent had received training and could deal with a patient with Ebola. However, 48 per cent had not been trained at all.
13 per cent of nurses claimed that their Ebola training was due to commence soon.
When asked if they knew how to protect themselves from the disease, whilst in the presence of a suspected Ebola patient, just 16 per cent admitted to have received training. Whilst just over half of the respondents (51 per cent) had not been trained at all.
Similarly to the statistic for nurses awaiting training on how to deal with a suspected case of Ebola, 13 per cent revealed that their training on how to protect themselves was due to take place in the near future.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, said in October that preparations were currently taking place to make sure that all hospital staff, on the frontline, are well trained in how to use protective equipment and also know how to deal with suspected cases of the disease.
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