‘We’re all in this together’
Lord Willis of Knaresborough, delivering his keynote speech to Congress, called on nursing staff to be united by the passion that drives them.
“It was a great privilege to chair the Commission on nursing education,” he said. “The vast majority of people I met, from community nurses, to nursing deans, to mentors, to students, were inspirational. They all had one goal - to improve patient outcomes."
But, Lord Willis said, their ability to achieve that goal is so often thwarted by a health and social care system that operates in an ever increasing number of silos. “The challenge post Francis, and indeed post Willis, is not to create yet more silos but to break down barriers and recognise that we are all in this together,” he said.
Referring to the increased use of health care support workers (HCSWs) to deliver frontline care within the NHS and private sector, Lord Willis said patients deserve better than to be at the hands of people whose level of competence is not guaranteed. “It’s not right that some of our most elderly and frail patients are being cared for by an army of committed but untrained, poorly paid and undervalued health care support workers,” he stressed.
The Commission recommended mandatory standards of training and regulation for all HCSWs. “Congress, that must be your aim,” Lord Willis pleaded. “I understand, at a time of restricted budgets, the reluctance to introduce a costly registration scheme but as a bare minimum I call on the Secretary of State to make it a mandatory requirement for employers to register the training their staff have received and make that register of competence available for inspection.
“If we are serious about patients being at the heart of the new NHS then they and their relatives have a right to know the level of competency of those who are caring for them.”
The Commission, which reported its findings in November, addressed concerns about the appropriateness of an all graduate nurse education programme which, from this year, is the only route into nursing. Lord Willis said the cheap jibes of “too posh to wash” or “too clever to care” were examined carefully and, though there were members of the Commission who seriously questioned the wisdom of an all graduate profession, the feedback he received was almost universally positive.
“Unsurprisingly, we found no evidence that there is somehow a conflict between intellect and compassion. What neither Francis nor our Commission recommended was that potential students should spend a year working as unqualified and unregulated health care support workers and, that by a process of osmosis, they would somehow be fit to become nursing students.”
Touching briefly on the importance of positive practice placements, Lord Willis stressed that the appointment, training and support of mentors must be taken far more seriously. “Many mentors we met were frustrated, tired and over worked, often having to remain behind at the end of a long shift to find quality time with their students. Congress – mentoring is not an add on duty.”
