As the largest workforce group within this system, nursing has a leading role to play in rebuilding services and targeting health inequalities. In order to enable nurses to fulfil this role, politicians and policy-makers must stop viewing nursing as a cost to be controlled and see it instead as an asset to be valued and supported. During the course of the election campaign, the RCN will be highlighting ways in which this can be done.
The crisis in our health and social care system has many underlying causes but is rooted more than anything in the fact that there are not enough nursing staff to provide the right level of care for the people of Northern Ireland. The greatest challenge for the next Assembly and Executive is to deliver a nursing workforce capable of meeting the health care needs of our people and our communities. If we don’t act now, the consequences will be unimaginable.
To our members, we implore you to use your voice in this election. Nurses’ votes will be crucial in determining the outcome, so please make sure that you have your say. To our politicians, we ask you to reflect on the issues set out in the RCN manifesto, listen to the voice of nursing, and make sure that you deliver for nursing staff and the people of Northern Ireland. In that way, we can all work together to build a health and social care system of which we - and the people we are all here to serve - can be proud.
