The Warrington workload tool: determining its use in one trust

With recent advances in chronic disease management and with earlier discharge from the acute sector, it has become increasingly important for district nurses to monitor and evidence their increasing workload, to monitor demand and capacity. The district nursing service in the author's trust has employed an adaptation of the Warrington workload tool, over several years, to demonstrate and evidence their workload. However, many dispute the accuracy of such tools. This audit set out to discover how accurately the tool was being calculated. The findings have cast doubt on the tool's accurate completion and highlighted an ongoing training need to ensure improvement in its use. The tool is to be further supported with the inclusion of a caseload profiling tool to provide qualitative evidence of the service that the nurses now provide. It was also identified that the service needs evidence that their resource needs are met in response to workload tool data to ensure the tool continues to be used in a proactive manner.