Rod's blog
The Royal College of Nursing’s Congress continues today and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you all to Congress and Liverpool.
Yesterday saw the RCN and RCN Foundation Awards Ceremony celebrating some awe inspiring and highly innovative nurses. These examples showed how impactful and valued nurses and nursing can be when they are given the freedom and support to do so.
Today, I am looking forward to thought provoking debates and intriguing fringes, covering all aspects of a modern nurse’s professional life. In addition, today will see Dr Peter’s Carter, RCN Chief Executive and General Secretary, give his key note speech. He will discuss key aspects of the highly important Francis Report and how government can support nurses to do their job well.
We have also been reviewing the coverage the RCN received from its survey, released on Sunday, which highlighted that members are doing more paperwork than ever. The survey found that nurses spend 17 per cent of their time on non-essential clerical tasks, preventing four in five from providing care. This story was featured in The Telegraph and the survey results were used in The Independent and I. The Scottish and Welsh press have also featured this story quoting RCN Scotland Director Teresa Fyffe, and RCN Associate Director of Employment Relations, Peter Meredith-Smith.
Today the media have also featured the RCN’s story that nurses are over-stretched because of dangerously low staffing levels, impacting on quality of care. The RCN survey showed that 71% of senior nurses said they were not confident that staffing levels were always adequate, with more than a third saying they were unsafe on a weekly basis. These results serve to reinforce our call for minimum staffing levels.
This story was widely reported, for example in the BBC, The Independent, The Times and The Daily Mail . Peter also wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian stating that poor care is not systemic and calls for better understanding by the Government into what nurses and HCAs do and how they train.
Congress is an invaluable opportunity to discuss the real issues affecting member’s professional lives. Therefore I would encourage you all to become involved with Congress 2013, in any way you can, for example taking part in debates, making comments on facebook or tweeting. (#RCNCongress)
Many thanks
Rod
