Welcome from the editor - John Cooper

January 2012

Happy New Year.

It doesn’t seem like two minutes since Christmas and already the Valentines cards and Easter eggs are everywhere.

My New Year resolution was to get to grips with my studies and more importantly try and finish a few outstanding projects. One such venture was the restructuring and revitalisation of our pre-assessment documentation and processes. Some of you might recall me talking about it at the RCN conference last October. It has been a war of attrition that has taken several years of painstaking work. I have learnt a lot along the way though: 

1. Have a clear plan and encourage all stakeholders to get in touch from the start.

2. Be prepared to take criticism and turn it into good use.

3. If you believe its good enough, keep at it…it will be worth it in the end.

Overall though, any project like this often evolves over time and may be different from your initial vision and I think it’s important to be flexible enough to develop with the project. For example we only intended to improve the documentation and thus make it more user friendly, but subsequently we have incorporated integrated care plans and the work continues to expand. I can see this being an ongoing operation.

It is fantastic news that the Department of Health has decided to use slight loss as a parameter for its public health outcomes – this can only help improve care for all vulnerable individuals with sight issues and well-done Yvonne for her contribution to the process.

The website has started to develop and the next idea is to create a newsletter over the coming months - if you have any ideas for it please get in touch. 

Don’t forget to get into contact via the link (my email address is jcoopereditorrcn@gmail.com) we always appreciate your opinions, questions and thoughts. Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards

John Cooper

RCN Ophthalmic Forum editor  

Oculoplastic Specialist Nurse, Central Manchester Foundation NHS Trust, Manchester