Why you should get involved in the Forums

I am currently working as a Children’s nurse and Senior Sister in Recovery and am also the Chair of the Children and Young People (CYP) Acute Care Forum.  I would like to show you all that being part of the forum steering committees is for all nurses, student nurses and nursing support workers, not just people who have been qualified a million years!

I first started with the steering committee when I was quite junior in my career, but have returned after several years because I missed being part of the bigger picture work that the RCN was involved in. Initially I applied to be part of the steering committee as I was passionate about representing the needs of CYP and staff in Theatres and Recovery. It felt like a very under represented area at the time and I was keen to voice this. I was extremely nervous about taking on the role, but my desire to highlight the speciality outweighed this. I soon realised that having years of experience was not that important (there were loads of people in the forum with so much experience to draw on); what was important was being passionate and committed, and not being afraid to put your head above the parapet!

Over the years, I have represented the RCN in many areas, some where the voice of CYP or nursing was not strong, and my role was to voice their needs. It is not always necessary to know the details of every speciality or white paper. As a less experienced nurse, I found it was a great motivator to read more widely about areas not directly relating to my practice area, which in turn empowered me. This also supported me within my substantive role, as it provided a depth to my knowledge and evidence base. The role has also allowed me to meet with nurses from different fields of practice and different organisations. This enabled me to grow my knowledge of nursing as a whole, and give me a greater understanding of the needs of CYP, and the teams who care for them. 

Among other things, the Acute Care Forum steering committee is currently influencing the national PEWS and SPOT programme, CYP mental health strategy, CYP workforce strategy, Transitioning care, Neonatal framework and NCEPOD reports. The areas that we cover include departments such as- Neonates, PICU, Emergency Department, Paediatric inpatient wards, HDU & Theatres.

We are keen to recruit both steering committee members with specialist interest in general CYP inpatient care, health inequalities, childhood obesity, adolescent health, and safeguarding. We are also looking to develop a network of “experts” in areas, so if you do not feel able to commit the time to the steering committee, we can call upon you for advice with specific areas. 
Whether your specialty or area of interest is the CYP Acute Care forum, or any of the other 31 forum steering committees with vacancies this year, this could be an exciting opportunity for you to develop your career and get more involved with the RCN.

The deadline for applying is 4.30pm on 22 July 2022 - don't miss your chance, find out more here.