Nurses will be rated on their level of compassionate care under new plans announced by Health Secretary Alan Johnson this month.

The proposal, which aims to develop new parameters to assess the effectiveness and safety of nursing care, will be included in Lord Darzi's review of the NHS and was welcomed by the Royal College of Nursing.

"Nurses across the UK work tirelessly to ensure that patients are treated with dignity, compassion and sensitivity - aspects of care which are so important but rarely measured," said Dr. Peter Carter, General Secretary of the RCN.

"We are delighted that the government has recognised the need to measure quality in nursing care. These new standards are groundbreaking in that they will directly recognise nurses for the kind of care that patients really value."

Standards of nutrition, pain minimisation, hand-washing, decreased infection rates and safety on the wards will also be included in the assessment.

Nurses at this year's RCN national congress had requested more recognition for the quality of care they deliver to patients and to be able to benchmark the work they are doing on their ward and compare it with their peers to drive up the quality of care.

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/dh/

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