The Nursing and Midwifery (NMC) has been urged to improve its transcription process for virtual fitness to practise (FtP) hearings following a series of concerns raised about written errors.
It is understood that the nursing regulator had previously used a shorthand writer for virtual hearings, but has moved to automated transcriptions in the hope of being more timely and efficient.
But Nursing in Practice has been told that a varied quality in transcriptions – including instances of written errors and typos – is potentially putting nurses at a disadvantage and creating an ‘unequal playing field’.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it has raised concerns about the quality of the automated transcripts used by the NMC, warning that the provision of ‘accurate transcripts’ is vital to ensure FtP hearings are ‘done correctly’.
‘There have, however, been several occasions where we have needed to raise concerns about the quality of the transcripts and the impact this can have on the hearing,’ an RCN spokesperson told Nursing in Practice.
‘We have raised this with the NMC and continue to urge them to improve this aspect of hearings to ensure fairness for all involved.’
Campaign group NMCWatch has also escalated the issue with the nursing regulator directly and said it was aware of several hearings being impacted by transcription errors.
One nurse supported by the group, who asked to remain anonymous, told Nursing in Practice that their virtual hearing has been forced to ‘start again’ after almost 50 days, due to identified inaccuracies in the transcripts produced up to that point.
They said the re-starting of their hearing has had a major impact on their mental and physical health.
‘My time has been significantly wasted in sitting in a hearing that has had no outcome made of it, that hasn’t been concluded at all, and that has had a significant impact on me personally,’ they said.
NMCWatch has warned that the use of the automated transcription software is especially damaging in longer hearings that are spread across several days or weeks.
In these cases, transcripts are a key tool for reminding registrants and witnesses of what was discussed at the last stage of the hearing, it said.
Cathryn Watters, director of NMCWatch, told Nursing in Practice that her organisation knew of multiple virtual hearings where automated transcripts contained errors, including having large pieces of speech missing, or incorrectly replaced words.
‘If you have any worries about typos or about something not being accurate, you can bring it up with the panel, but that’s not really the point because if you haven’t got accuracy in the transcript anyway, how do you then question whether it’s accurate?’ she explained.
The nursing regulator responded in a letter to NMCWatch, seen by Nursing in Practice, in which it explained that it had also used a shorthand writer in its earliest virtual hearings, but moved to an automated transcription service for ‘a faster and more efficient way of transcribing hearings’.
‘After testing the automated transcription in the hearing environment, we were satisfied that the transcripts produced, although automated and not manually produced, were sufficient as a record of the hearing,’ the NMC added.
The NMC also outlined how transcripts can be submitted to the ‘hearings coordinator’, and said it is ‘reasonable’ for the hearings coordinator to let the requestor know that there may be ‘some typos’ in the transcript due to the way it is transcribed.
The regulator also shared its plans to audio record all virtual hearings, alongside providing written transcripts, to help ‘resolve this issue’.
In response to concerns raised in this article, an NMC spokesperson said the regulator was ‘confident’ that the transcription tool it used was ‘appropriate’ for recording hearings virtually.
‘No transcription service, manual or automated, is infallible and we have processes to ensure precision and transparency,’ they said.
‘For example, transcripts can only be amended following approval from all hearing parties.
‘As an extra step, we’ll soon be introducing audio recording alongside transcription for virtual hearings.’
