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Phone:: (023) 8059 7877
Email:: peter.griffiths@soton.ac.uk

Professor Peter Griffiths PhD, BA, RN, FEANS, FHEA

Chair of Health Services Research, Health Workforce and Systems Research Group Lead

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Peter Griffiths is Chair of Health Services Research and lead for the Health Workforce and Systems (Health Work) research group. He also leads the Health Workforce and Systems them in the National Institute for Health Research’s Applied Research Centre (ARC) Wessex.

His research focusses on the healthcare workforce, and in particular safe and effective nurse staffing. In 2017 he was appointed as a senior investigator for the National Institute for Health Research, a title which recognises the most prominent and prestigious researchers funded by the NIHR and the most outstanding leaders of patient and people-based research within the NIHR Faculty.

Despite huge technological advances, delivering health care is an essentially human activity, which remains labour intensive. Ensuring we have the right workforce and organisation to deliver high quality and safe care with humanity, now and in the future, is the ultimate aim of my research

Before joining the University of Southampton in 2011 Peter was director of the National Nursing Research Unit at King’s College London. He led on outcomes data collection for the global RN4CAST study, one of the largest studies of the nursing workforce ever undertaken. In 2014 he worked with the UKs National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to review evidence for its safe staffing programme following the Francis Inquiry and went on to work with NHS Improvement in developing safe staffing guidance for the NHS.

He is an adjunct professor at Stockholm’s Karolinska Instutet, distinguished visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a senior fellow at the Centre for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been Executive Editor of the International Journal of Nursing Studies, the most highly ranked journal in the field, since 2006.

Research

Responsibilities

Publications

Teaching

Contact

Research interests

Peter’s core research programme addresses questions of safe and effective staffing, covering aspects of work organisation, shift patterns, skill mix and substitution. In addition to addressing patient safety, including the impact of nurse staffing levels on hospital mortality, his research also considers the economic outcomes of different workforce configurations as well as the impacts on ‘compassionate care’ and staff wellbeing.

In recent years, he has taken a particular interest in the studying the effect of staffing on omissions in care (missed care), in particular vital signs observations, and the role this can play in leading to adverse patient outcomes. He has also explored the relationship between shift patterns and care quality, costs and outcomes.

Working with colleagues at King’s College and beyond he has explored the long-term impacts of the ‘Productive Ward’ a lean based quality improvement programme that was implemented across the NHS. 2020 saw the commencement of the Magnet4Europe study – a cluster randomised controlled trial implementing principles of the Magnet® programme to improve staff wellbeing in European hospitals.

Research group

Health Work

Affiliate research groups

National Institute for Health Research Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (Wessex), ARC Wessex, Health Work and Systems

Research project(s)

Implementation, impact and costs of policies for safe staffing in acute trusts

Through a survey and case studies, this study will evaluate the extent to which safe staffing policies following the Francis Inquiry have been implemented, how that varies from place to place, the factors that have shaped implementation, and describe the costs & consequences of implementation.

Identifying nurse-staffing requirements using the Safer Nursing Care Tool. Modelling the costs and consequences of real world application to address variation in patient need on hospital wards

The study will examine how patients' need for nursing care, varies from day to day. This will allow us to see how well staffing matches need and to explore the costs and consequences of different ways of deploying nurses to meet varying need.

Nurse staffing levels, missed vital signs observations and mortality in hospital wards: modelling the consequences and costs of variations in nurse staffing and skill mix

This retrospective observational study uses routinely collected data on ward and shift level nurse staffing, vital signs observations and patient outcomes in 32 general wards in order to explore the relationship between nurse staffing levels and mortality in hospital.

Study of the knowledge, beliefs and behaviours of hospital staff involved in patient monitoring to identify factors affecting performance of scheduled night time observations

Creating Learning Environments for Compassionate Care (CLECC): a feasibility study

A mixed methods study to evaluate the feasibility of an intervention targeted at developing the relational capacity of hospital ward nursing teams. 2014-2016.

Evaluating a major innovation in hospital design: workforce implications and impact on patient and staff experiences of all single room hospital accommodation

This proposed study builds on an existing study (Phase 1), funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which is due to complete Summer 2011. This phase 1 'before' study examines staff and patient experience in the old hospital buildings before the move to all single room accommodation in the new build and was a collaborative project within the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) at Imperial College, London. Phase 1 provides in-depth research on care processes, costs and staff and patient experiences in the existing accommodation at Pembury and Kent & Sussex hospitals during the period in the run-up to the move to the new hospital (2011) and its immediate aftermath. However, due to EPSRC's reduced funding for HACIRIC's external collaborators our current study cannot continue beyond May 2011, despite excellent progress and feedback in our interim review.

Nurse staffing & quality of care in UK general practice

Development project for national Audit for Essence of Care

This project sets out to identify how a national audit could be undertaken and what criteria should be audited.

RN4CAST Nurse Forecasting in Europe

This study, undertaken in collaboration with a large international consortium seeks to explore how the size and composition of the registered nursing workforce affects the quality of care in hospitals.

Impact of Releasing Time to Care (the productive ward ™)

This study, undertaken in collaboration with partners in Canada, seeks to evaluate a nurse-led quality improvement programme which was developed in England by the NHS Institute for Improvement and innovation.

Improving Fundamental Care on Hospital Wards

This is a feasibility study for an intervention aiming to make fundamental care in acute hospitals more person-centred. It pairs the Creating Learning Environments for Compassionate Care (CLECC) intervention with an adapted, co-produced version of the ‘TellUs’ card to support personalisation of fundamental care in hospital.

Safe staffing in ICU: development and testing of a staffing model

What is the best model for the allocation of nurses to patients in intensive care settings in England and how does it impact on patient, family, workforce and organisational outcomes?

Consequences, costs and cost-effectiveness of different workforce configurations in English acute hospitals: a longitudinal retrospective study using routinely collected data

This study seeks to understand how variation in the size and make-up of care teams on hospital wards in England influences patient outcomes and the costs of care.

Magnet4Europe: Improving Mental Health & Wellbeing of Health Professionals

The University of Southampton is involved in the largest ever project to improve hospital work environments, with an award of 4 million Euros from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. The grant will support the international partnership with some of the world’s leading universities and is being led by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

I lead the Health Workforce and Systems theme of the NIHR ARC and a group of researchers working on projects related to the nursing workforce as part of the Health Workforce and Systems research group.

I am executive editor of the International Journal of Nursing Studies

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Articles

Book

Griffiths, P., & Bridges, J. (2010). Nursing research methods. SAGE Publications.

Book Chapters

Bridges, J., Griffiths, P., Frankland, J., Libberton, P., & May, C. (2019). Coordinating compassionate care across nursing teams: the implementation journey of a planned intervention. In J-L. Denis, P. Nugus, C. Rodriguez, & D. Chenevert (Eds.), Transitions and Boundaries in the Coordination and Reform of Health Services Springer International Publishing.
Hope, J., Schmidt, P., Recio Saucedo, A., Sayer, N., Fogg, C., Griffiths, P., Westwood, G., Smith, G., Meredith, P., Alton, Y., de Longh, A., & Maruotti, A. (2017). Managing night-time vital signs observations: the conflicting care work of supporting sleep and preventing deterioration. In RCN 2017 Research Conference University of Oxford.

Conferences

Dall'ora, C., Redfern, O., Ball, J., Meredith, P., & Griffiths, P. (2019). Night work for hospital nurses and sickness absence: a retrospective study using routinely collected data. Poster session presented at Twenty-Fourth International Symposium on Shiftwork and Working Time, Coeur D'Alene, United States.
Recio Saucedo, A., Griffiths, P., Maruotti, A., Westwood, G., Meredith, P., Sayer, N., Alton, Y., Fogg, C., & Smith, G. B. (2017). Factors affecting observations of vital signs in hospital during the night shift: nurses’ perspectives. 68. Abstract from RCN International Nursing Research Conference 2017, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Hope, J., Recio Saucedo, A., Griffiths, P., Smith, G., & Schmidt, P. (2017). Under the radar: The benefits of a sociological view of nurses’ ‘non-compliance’ in hospital wards at night. In Medical Sociology Study Group: 49th Annual Conference Programme (pp. 102). BSA Publications.
Barker, H., Griffiths, P., Mesa Eguiagaray, I., Pickering, R., Gould, L. J., & Bridges, J. (2016). Quantity and quality of interaction between staff and older patients in UK hospital wards: a descriptive study. Paper presented at RCN International Nursing Research Conference, Edinburgh, .

Letters/Editorials

Norman, I., & Griffiths, P. (2019). Nursing must acknowledge and address systemic problems which lead to poor care. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 91, 108-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.12.003
Blomberg, K., Griffiths, P., Wengström, Y., May, C., & Bridges, J. (2018). Corrigendum to ‘Interventions for compassionate nursing care: A systematic review’ International Journal of Nursing Studies (2016) 137-155(S0020748916300931)(10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.07.009). International Journal of Nursing Studies, 83, 104-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.12.007
Gosling, J., Mays, N., Erens, B., Reid, D., Taylor, W., & Griffiths, P. (2018). Improving the quality of general practice services in the UK: surveying the activities of GPs and practice managers (abstract & commentary)*. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 88, 121-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.09.001
Griffiths, P., & Norman, I. (2018). The impact of “Brexit” on nursing and health services: Editorial debate. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 77, A1-A2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.10.020
Griffiths, P., & Norman, I. J. (2017). The impact of nursing - a self-evident truth? International Journal of Nursing Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.10.016
Smith, G. B., Recio Saucedo, A., & Griffiths, P. (2017). The measurement frequency and completeness of vital signs in general hospital wards: An evidence free zone? International Journal of Nursing Studies, 74, A1-A4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.07.001
Ball, J., Maben, J., & Griffiths, P. (2015). Practice nursing: what do we know? British Journal of General Practice, 65(630), 10-11. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp15X683041

Reports

Reviews

Dall'ora, C., & Griffiths, P. (2017). Flexible nurse staffing in hospital wards: the effects on costs and patient outcomes. Evidence Brief, 3(1).
Griffiths, P., & Dall'ora, C. (2017). Shift work in hospitals: what are the effects on patient and employee outcomes? Evidence Brief, 2(1), 1-2.
Dall'ora, C., Pope, C., Crouch, R., Sujan, M., & Griffiths, P. (2017). Skill mix and new roles in Emergency and Urgent care: what is the evidence? Evidence Brief, 2, 1-2.

Working Papers

Griffiths, P., & Saville, C. (2019). Tools & systems to determine nurse staffing requirements: an evidence review. University of Southampton.
Bridges, J., Lucas, G., Wiseman, T., & Griffiths, P. (2016). Preparedness of UK workforce to deliver cancer care to older people: summary report from a scoping review. (Working Papers in the Health Sciences). University of Southampton. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17580.05767

Workforce
Outcome measures
Evidence-based practice
Systematic review
European Academy of Nursing Science PhD Summer School

Professor Peter Griffiths
Health Sciences Student Office University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ

Room Number: 67/3021

Professor Peter Griffiths's personal home page

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