This weekend marks International Women’s Day – a time to celebrate the achievements of women across the globe. And as our College nears its 110-year anniversary, I’ve been reflecting on the legacy of pioneering nurses whose work shaped our profession. I feel deeply privileged to have worked with so many inspirational and brilliant women across my career – and I know the difference you make to people’s lives. Because when women rise, communities rise - and when nursing rises, patient outcomes rise too. 

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I feel nursing staff have been undervalued in part because we are a majority female profession. So it’s important that on days of celebration, we also highlight progress that has been made.  

A good example came a couple of weeks ago, when the UK government committed to a funded package of support to improve nursing career progression. These are significant commitments for our profession, including a funded national review of band 5 roles in England. While it is not the whole solution to the structural reform our profession needs – it's significant, hard‑won progress, and a step towards the value of the nursing profession being fully recognised. And importantly, it’s one you should all be proud of.   

Not only have the UK government listened, but they have agreed that nursing deserves more. The new commitments for nursing are a direct response to that pressure.   

And this is the first time nursing career progression has ever been prioritised for investment. That’s a milestone – and proof that sustained RCN pressure works. It’s your voices that have driven this change. 

The news is also positive for the future of our profession, our student nurses, making nursing a more attractive profession to join. There has been speculation in recent weeks that the Westminster government may make changes to student loans ahead of the Spring Statement – this didn’t happen. Many student nurses face severe financial hardship during their studies. We need an overhaul of financial support for student nurses – starting with improved financial support by increasing the Learning Support Fund to reflect the cost of living and inflation, prompt payment of expenses incurred on placements and loan forgiveness for graduates who go on to work in the NHS.  

We’ve seen that on corridor care as well, where your voices have been strong, loud and unrelenting. And it was your testimony alongside the determined campaigning of the RCN-led coalition that has resulted in NHSE publishing plans to start tackling corridor care in acute trusts this week. And the new definition of corridor care, while by no means perfect and which has taken far too long to develop, will move us closer to determining the scale of this crisis. We should absolutely celebrate this progress, but truly eradicating corridor care requires bigger and bolder long-term action, with the detail and new funding to match. There’s more information about how you can continue to help end corridor care here.  

We want you to tell us what staffing levels were like the last time you were at work, to help us build an accurate UK-wide picture of the challenges that nursing and midwifery is facing today. So, whether you work for an NHS or independent sector employer; whether you’re in the community or in acute care; whatever your nursing specialism - we want to hear from you. Your insight gives us the evidence that we need to demand change. 

Today marks Overseas NHS Workers’ Day - our health and care system has always needed staff from across the world to come to the UK to care for our patients - and as a country, we should be celebrating and valuing that. Thank you for everything you do. Yesterday we opened our new exhibition at RCN HQ and online, Moved to Care: Stories of Nursing and Migration, covering 150 years of nursing migration. It’s a wonderful exploration of personal stories of nursing staff told by objects, artwork and voices - showing how migration has shaped nursing, and how nursing staff, in turn, have shaped the country.    

Nursing is a global profession and the escalating crisis in the Middle East is deeply concerning, especially the implications for the safety of health care workers and their families. As UK nursing staff, we send our solidarity to all those affected and every health care worker dealing with the consequences. International law has to be upheld to protect health care workers and health infrastructure.  

I am looking forward to joining many of you for our UK Joint Representatives' Conference in Glasgow next week, which will bring together workplace reps from across the UK to learn from each other on how to support our members. And an even greater number of members will be coming together at our annual RCN Congress in May, with free booking now open. These opportunities are so important for us to raise our voices and make plans together for the future of the nursing profession. Because we are at our strongest when we are united as one voice, the voice of nursing.