England’s new chief nursing officer (CNO) has appealed to primary and community care nurses to help inform the government’s 10-year plan for the health service, by sharing examples of good practice and innovation.
In one of his first addresses since taking up the post as CNO in the summer, Duncan Burton spoke at this year’s Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) conference where he paid tribute to the often ‘unseen’ work done by nurses outside of hospital settings.
He said he was ‘really grateful for the efforts of colleagues working across community and primary care services’.
‘You have such an essential role in delivering care for people close to home, in their own homes and in their communities,’ Mr Burton told conference attendees.
‘So, thank you for that enormous contribution to people’s health and wellbeing across the whole life course.’
In a direct appeal to the workforce, Mr Burton asked primary and community care nurses to ‘get involved’ in the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS in England.
The 10-year plan is supported by the recent publication of Lord Ara Darzi’s review into the health service which exposed a lack of investment in community services and its nursing workforce.
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‘The [Darzi] report paves the way for the government’s new 10-year plan for healthcare, which will provide a greater focus on challenges set out in the report and how we can deliver those big shifts,’ noted Mr Burton.
‘And so, my call to action to all of the colleagues on this call, and for nurses and midwives everywhere, is that you are key to the development of its plan and its delivery.
‘There is a real commitment to engage people from across our professions and importantly, the people and the communities that we serve.’
According to Mr Burton, the team leading the development of the plan ‘will be undertaking a comprehensive engagement exercise with staff, with patients and the public’.
‘And I urge everyone to please get involved,’ he said.
‘We need you to be championing the role of community and primary care nursing.’
In his review, Lord Darzi highlighted that many of the solutions to the challenges in the health service could be found within it.
‘So, what I know from going out and visiting colleagues across England and hearing about all the fantastic work, we have got a vast array of good practice already, and that should be the starting point for the plan to reform it,’ said Mr Burton.
‘So please make sure you bring in and you share your areas of good practice and innovation and the work that’s taking place across community settings and primary care settings being led and implemented by nursing colleagues, and we need to bring those solutions to this work.’
The CNO urged nurses to ‘look out for more information that will be coming out shortly about how to get engaged in that process’.
Mr Burton was speaking during a QNI Conference session which heard from leading nurse representatives across the UK.
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Interim CNO for Scotland, Anne Armstrong, highlighted the work being done by the country’s Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce – noting that a report around attracting and retaining the workforce would be published in November.
The report, which has been informed by around 4,000 nurses who have shared their experiences of working across health and social care, will be supported by a ‘full implementation plan’.
This would be focused on ‘taking the action that will make a difference, so that our frontline nurses, our community nurses, feel the difference and can see that their time has been well spent in helping us create the future workforce approach’, said Ms Armstrong.
She added: ‘The key for me is [around] ongoing empowerment and engagement and making sure that you shape the future.’
Meanwhile, nursing officer for Wales, Paul Labourne, stressed that all nurses ‘can influence to make change’.
Mr Labourne, who covers primary and community care, said he wanted to ‘recognise’ the profession and stressed that all nurses can help ‘influence to make change’.
‘You’re not just the backbone of the NHS, but of the health and social care system, and often the unsung heroes, providing promotive, protective, preventative, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services for people throughout their life course,’ he said.
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He described the ‘high levels of self-determination and autonomous practice’ within the community, and the ‘professional judgements we make every day to promote, protect or prevent ill health’.
‘These, though, are not easily captured, and as such, not so recognised,’ he told the conference.
Nursing officer for older people within the Department of Health in Northen Ireland, Fionnuala Gallagher, spent time highlighting the work done by CNO Maria McIlgorm, who was unable to attend the event today.
Ms Gallagher said: ‘The CNO will continue to seize the opportunity to work collaboratively, to engage in meaningful dialog and to work in forging a path that prioritises the health and wellbeing of our communities, improving outcomes for our population across their lifespan.’
