RCN members representing all fields of practice - adult, children’s, learning disability and mental health - working across social care, community and acute services, and including nursing students, shared their personal experiences and perspective on the challenges facing the profession.

The event provided members with the opportunity to speak directly with Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray MSP, Interim Chief Nursing Officer, Anne Armstrong, and key MSPs including Carol Mochan MSP from Scottish Labour and Brian Whittle MSP from the Scottish Conservatives.

Chair of Scottish Executive Nurse Directors group, June Brown, and Convenor of the Council of Deans of Health Professor Susan Dawkes also joined the session chaired by RCN Scotland Board Chair Julie Lamberth.

Members shared the challenges of working in an environment where staff shortages and increased demand have resulted in unsafe practices becoming normalised. They talked about the impact on patients and residents and on themselves and colleagues, highlighting the toll being unable to provide safe and effective care takes on the mental and physical wellbeing of nursing staff.

Politicians heard about the need to value registered nurses and nursing support workers equally across all settings and in particular the need to recognise the clinical skills, contribution and impact of nurses working in community services and social care. They also heard about the need to focus on improving the working environment to retain the current nursing workforce and the need to act now on promoting nursing careers to attract the workforce of the future.

A passion for the nursing profession was evident throughout the discussions, as well as calls for implementation of the recommendations from the Ministerial Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce to be fully resourced.

The meeting followed the publication of our fourth ‘The Nursing Workforce in Scotland’ report. The report sets out the ‘bigger picture’ around Scotland’s nursing workforce statistics and contains 10 recommendations for tackling the nursing workforce crisis.

When sharing her experiences, Lyndsay Russell, RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year said: “Safe staffing, having opportunities to progress and being rewarded for your clinical skills and expertise are key to retaining our current nursing staff. I’m a proud nurse of 28 years and I would love to see a national campaign to encourage people of all ages to join our amazing profession.”

Commenting on the roundtable, Julie Lamberth, Chair, RCN Scotland Board said: “We really appreciate the opportunity to share our experiences directly with Scotland’s politicians and senior nurse leaders.

“While the members who joined us came from varied backgrounds and a range of services, the themes of being under-staffed and under-valued were consistent.

“For the last two years we have been working with Scottish government on the Ministerial Taskforce, they now need to follow through on that commitment and ensure the recommendations are implemented in full. The same goes for the Agenda for Change review which provides an opportunity to address many of the issues shared today.

“This time next year we will be at the polling stations. Your vote matters. We have made this clear to our political leaders and expressed what they need to do to demonstrate their support for our profession.”