Getting future proofed

It is a myth that the summer months are a time of relative calm and order for the British healthcare system. The sense pervades that now is the time to get the house in order before the crisis of the winter season descends once more. All I can say is that the people who believe that sickness and injury take a few weeks off during the warmer months have clearly never worked in an A&E department.

Time and tide wait for no nurse and my colleagues and I across the North West remain as busy as ever. Not content with juggling my own dual careers in nursing and lecturing, my work on the RCN North West board and for my GLK branch, plus the unique demands of raising a teenage son, I have spent the past week volunteering in Lourdes, helping to tend the sick who are making pilgrimage to this holy site.

I find this work enormously rewarding and return year after year. There is something very pure about those who travel on faith and it gives me a sense of personal pride that I can help to provide the modern day medicine which sits hand in hand with a divine belief that has driven Catholic pilgrims to this place for three quarters of a century.

Belief is the most important tool we have in our possession as nurses. We believe in our ability to help cure or mend our patients or, where such outcomes are not to be, to relieve their pain and to care for them with dignity. We believe in our colleagues, that we work together for the greater good and will support each other whenever we see need. And we believe in our NHS and all the many branches of our ‘free at point of access’ healthcare system that first came into being 75 years ago.

Nye Bevan had a vision of what a national health service could be and what it could mean for the health and well-being of the British people. As we celebrate this milestone birthday, I think we could all take a moment to reaffirm our faith in our healthcare system. It might be faltering but it remains while it has people like you to depend upon.

So to those of you disheartened by the end to our industrial action in the NHS in England, I say to look at what we have achieved, rather than focus on what we have not. Our strike action brought back to the table an intransigent government and secured an increased pay offer and a one-off sum for most of the nurses in the NHS’ employ. We made those in power sit up and take notice of what we as a workforce had to say and it would take a foolish politician to think that we now retreat quietly, never to be heard from again. We will continue to fight for the pay, conditions, equality, career development and workforce planning that our members and our wider nursing community need and deserve.

To enable us to push most effectively for the change we wish to see, we need a period of stability within our organisation and I’m glad that our recent RCN annual general meeting went some way to putting in place some building blocks for the future.

The first of the three resolutions that were passed will see members currently on the RCN Council continue in post for an additional twelve months, allowing them to progress work resulting from both the Carr and KPMG reviews.

The second resolution passed was to allow Council to set subscription rates for a further five years to help ensure the financial stability of the organisation.

And the third resolution related to the number of RCN members required to call for a Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) and the way in which those EGM requests are submitted and verified.  A clearer process will be welcomed & an opportunity for any member to speak to Council will allow us to communicate effectively.  Any member can put themselves forward for a role in the RCN governance for which they are eligible. We build change from the ground up and new blood is always to be welcomed.

On the subject of AGMs, we’re rapidly approaching that time of year again when the eight branches that make up our region are required to hold their own AGM. Not only is the AGM a requirement of trade unionism, it is also the opportunity for the branch executive to be elected, reps ratified and plans made for the year ahead.

I can’t stress enough how invaluable both the activism and support of your local branch can be. It is where trust or area-specific needs can be identified, where solutions to gaps in learning can be provided and where, perhaps most importantly of all, support and camaraderie can be found. Nursing is a tremendously rewarding but ultimately stressful and difficult job and we are all guilty of ‘taking home’ our fears, regrets or distress at the end of the day. Through the connections made at your branch meeting, you know you can rely upon a never-ending source of support, empathy and genuine practical help. What, as the saying goes, is not to love about that?

For a branch to function – or, in fact, to exist - it simply must engage sufficient local members to join its exec team. The minimum requirement for the team is appointments in three posts, namely Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, but other roles are available too, such as deputy positions or Communications Officer, for example. Descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of these positions can be found here on our website and I urge you all to read them and consider putting yourself forward. The personal and professional development that comes of this type of involvement with the College and your peers is priceless and each role highly rewarding. The process is detailed on this webpage and you can direct further questions to our fabulous regional admin team. Contact carole.glaister@rcn.org.uk if you need to know more.

As a bare minimum, can I urge you in the strongest terms to please attend your AGM. Again, it is a absolute requirement that a meeting is quorate for it to count, which in this case means a minimum of ten members from the branch must be present. Sparing an hour of your time for the good of your fellow members is an ask that I hope you will consider not too onerous. Along with an email which will drop in the coming weeks, you’ll also soon find all the meetings detailed on our events page so keep an eye out.