Letter from the Chair

Published: 10 December 2012

These are interesting times in the worlds of critical care and in-flight nursing, with the forum very active on a number of fronts.

The forum participated fully in the press launch of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) in collaboration with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). Former Chair Rachel Binks and I shared the stage with the RCP at the press launch, which received widespread national coverage. This system is very well researched and is the best of its kind. It also provides all hospitals with a single system which means all understand how it works even when they move hospitals – this makes it intrinsically safer.

Some of us met with Professor Sir John Temple, who is undertaking a review of the organisations involved in critical care as a project on behalf of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM). We have high hopes that Sir John will help to bring together organisations to meet under the remit of a single body, where we can provide a united voice for our speciality.

Planning for a joint conference between our forum and the Defence Nursing Forum is well underway and will take place on 14 June. An exceptional programme is being put together in order to share best practice between civilian and military nursing staff.  We’re all delighted to be working closely with the Defence Nursing Forum and hope that this will become a regular annual event for your calendar.

We have been working on developing role descriptors for nursing staff working in repatriation and retrieval – by road or air. This is intended to replace the competencies document for in-flight nurses and is the first step in developing guidance for those in this field to develop their own skills and experience throughout their careers.  This section will help employers and commissioners to understand nursing roles within the field and we plan to launch this document at RCN Congress in April 2013.

The RCN doesn’t always produce the work internally; we also endorse the best publications in our field which apply. The National Outreach Forum (NOrF) has produced Operational Standards and Competencies for Critical Care Outreach Services which have been endorsed by the RCN. This excellent guidance is aimed at providing a standardised framework for the implementation and delivery of critical care outreach services and acute care teams across the United Kingdom.

If you are interested in helping the committee in areas of professional development which interest you, then have you thought about becoming a forum link nurse? Deputy Chair Sheila Goodman is our link nurse co-ordinator and would be very interested in hearing from you. Why not drop her a line with your ideas and become involved? We are especially interested in nursing staff from the four countries of the UK or within different specialist areas of critical care. Help us to make this a very active and vibrant professional forum.

David Quayle
Chair, RCN Critical Care and In-flight Nursing Forum