The manifesto sets out nurses’ priorities for starting to fix the long-standing problems that have brought the health and social care system in Northern Ireland to the point of collapse. These include measures to recruit and retain the nursing staff needed to provide safe and effective care; fair pay, reward and career progression; and enabling nurses to play a leading role in the rebuilding and transformation of services.
In particular, the RCN is demanding safe staffing legislation, a workforce plan, and measures to stem the increasing numbers of nurses who are leaving the service. It calls for fair pay, good terms and conditions, flexible working, and a robust approach to tackling violence and aggression towards nursing staff. Finally, the RCN highlights the need for better support for nursing homes and community health services, as well as a fundamental review of how nursing homes are funded, managed and operated.
RCN Northern Ireland Board Chair Fiona Devlin said: “Once again, we enter this Assembly election in the midst of yet another political crisis. More than ever, we need strong, committed and accountable political leadership for our health and social care services. No priority is more important than ensuring that we are able to meet the health and social care needs of our citizens and our communities. Nurses’ votes will be crucial in determining the outcome of this election and the make-up of the next Assembly. We are urging our members to make sure that they use their voice in this election campaign and then use their vote on 5 May. We also ask politicians to listen to the voice of nursing, and make sure that they deliver for nurses and the people of Northern Ireland.”
RCN Northern Ireland Director Rita Devlin commented: “As the largest workforce group within health and social care, nursing has a leading role to play in rebuilding services and targeting the deep health inequalities that exist here. To enable nurses to fulfil this role, politicians and policy-makers must stop viewing nursing as a cost to be controlled or reduced and must, instead, see it as an asset to be valued and supported.
“The crisis in our health and social care system has many underlying causes. But it is rooted more than anything in the fact that there are not enough nurses to provide the right level of care for patients. The greatest challenge for the next Assembly and Executive is to deliver a nursing workforce capable of meeting the health and social care needs of the people of Northern Ireland. If we don’t act now, the consequences will be unimaginable.”
You can read our full manifesto here.