A message from the Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy
The 12th May each year is the focus for nursing globally. As we celebrate the birthday of Florence Nightingale. As a community of millions of practitioners worldwide, nurses provide essential health and social care delivery to citizens throughout the life course. In the UK nurses remain the most trusted profession and they are critically placed across communities to support both a health response and health prevention role.
In the UK social care nurses are a community of 37,000 nurses working in a variety of roles from mental health, general, learning disability nursing working both in care homes and communities. The complexity of the care provided is often misunderstood. The autonomy of practice often working as a single practitioner is immense, unlike health settings the wraparound of support from a wider multidisciplinary team is a distant one meaning advanced clinical decisions being made, complex care management and planning undertaken in isolation. We spend hours of our life in NHS care and for some lifetimes and other weeks, months and years being supported by social care.
Creating a specialism for this group across 19,000 providers has taken influence, and partnership. Over the last 5 years we have built networks, created opportunities to build resilience, developed a research community with colleagues in NIHCR including a 5-year funded intern programme and informal research talking head series. The RCN Foundation has funded the first ever Professor of Social Care Nursing. Working with colleagues here in DHSC and Jamie Waterall’s team considering the roles of social care nursing in public health. We have built 7 regional Social Care Nurse Councils critical voices aligned with NHS regional nurses.
As a community and with support from Skills for Care and Council of Dean’s we have been working with Higher Education Institutions to implement the first ever undergraduate placement strategy for every student nurse to have a placement in social care it is how we change outdated perceptions and develop nurses fit for the shift into community led services.
The upcoming professional strategy for nursing and midwifery, which is being developed with the professions and led by the Chief Nursing Officer for England Duncan Burton, will set a vision for all nurses, midwives and nursing associates across England, including nurses working in social care.
Building numerous networks and creating a sense of community is just the start in ensuring the work of nurses in social care hidden from sight are absolutely front and centre of delivering better services and supporting change.
So, this year in communities across the UK and around the world we will celebrate the life of nursing’s founder, but also the contribution of nursing to delivering care everywhere.
Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for EnglandOn International Nurses Day, I want to say thank you to each and every nurse and nursing student working in social care. Your expertise and skills are vital and your deep understanding of the people, families and communities you care for is invaluable – not just to those you support today, but for the future of health and care delivery across the country.
Professor Jamie Waterall, Deputy Chief Public Health NurseNurses working across social care play a vital public health role, supporting millions of people to live healthier, more independent lives for longer. I would encourage all nurses working across social care to take a few minutes to explore the Ten Public Health Tips for the Social Care Workforce . It’s a practical resource designed to help you strengthen your knowledge and confidence in this important area of practice.
seen at 09:59, 12 May in Social care.