Feedback from OT staff on 5-day week arrangement

5-Day Week                                                                                                                                           

Dear Dr

Feedback from OT staff on 5-day week arrangement had been collected for your information and consideration.

30 responses received

Staff agreed                   : 5 out of 30 (17%)

  Staff disagreed:               : 24 out of 30 (80%)

  Staff with No comment:  1 out of 30 ( 3%)

9 responses received

   Staff agreed                    :   3 out of 19 (16%)

   Staff disagreed               : 15 out of 19 (79%)

   Staff with no comment   :   1 out of 19 (5 %)

The opinion and suggestions received are summarized as follows:

u          5-day week inevitably involves extended working hours in the non-rest days, some staff are concerned that this would affect their family life.

u           Some staff may find extended working hours taxing. The staff may become fatigue over time. This may result in increased frequency of medicaattendance,

u          If one nurse was deducted from night shift, staff were worried that there would not be adequate manpower to cope with complex/critical cases.

Moreover, the one head count saved alone may not be adequate to support the day time session rearrangement. It is also anticipated that there

would not be any buffer for staff training or special leave,

u          With decreased night shift manpower, the frequency of calling back first call NO would be increased. As a result the manpower for the next day may be affected

It seemed feasible to implement 5-day week in our department if the following adjustments could be made:

If 5-day week is to be implemented with the present manpower setting , OT sessions need to be reduced from 22 to 20 per week with OT hours rearranged. However, one elective OT session could be extended for 1 to 1.5 hours from Mondays to Thursdays. With OT sessions starting earlier and finishing at a later hour, ward patient care flow may be affected. Therefore, some co-ordination with wards would be required.

Another concern is the manpower requirement for releasing staff for PH/SH compensation. Periodic partial suspension of elective sessions may help to solve the problem.

Some staff who did not give comment expressed that they would like to see the concrete duty setting before they could make a decision. Perhaps we may need further discussion on the issue.

 

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