First time voting member at Congress

I've been wanting to engage more with national nursing issues for some time now. My passion is providing holistic pain management to children and young people. All children and young people should have access to effective pain assessment and management, wherever they are in the United Kingdom. By joining the Pain and Palliative Care Forum I have been able to link in with other members and share expertise.

Attending RCN Congress gave me the opportunity to be part of making a difference; being able to use my vote to influence change. A highlight for me was voting to lobby the Government to stop 'Corridor Care'. Thankfully this is not an issue in paediatrics but as a nurse it felt so rewarding to stand alongside my adult nursing colleagues and push for this change.

Congress is more than just debates. Fringe sessions allowed for smaller groups to discuss specialist topics, such as supporting paediatric mental health, changes to student education or how to communicate with people with dementia. In addition were the key note speakers who were all incredibly interesting to listen to - Caroline Lucas discussing the Green Party's views on the NHS, Pat Cullen, our RCN General Secretary and the amazing Shani Dhanda on her experiences of being a patient at Birmingham Children's Hospital, when she was a child, and her role now as a Disability Inclusion specialist.

However the greatest benefit to being in Brighton was networking with my pain and palliative care colleagues. It was apparent that we all share similar values, striving to improve pain management and palliative care for our patients and supporting nursing staff to develop and attain the necessary skills and knowledge to provide this.
I strongly recommend all RCN members to attend Congress, to meet like-minded colleagues, take part in debates and be part of improving nursing, for patients, their families and for ourselves.