We, alongside many thousands of you and others, have recently been involved in the Nursing and Midwifery Councils review of post-registration standards ‘Building on ambitions for community and public health nursing’ (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2021).
We continue to be involved in the findings and agreed changes. The intent of the new standards ‘will ensure that people who use health and care services can be confident that they will receive high quality care from their specialist practitioner whether they're at home, in the community, or accessing public health services’.
While we have expressed our frustrations at this work going ahead during and, indeed, adding to the pressures of this global pandemic, we also knew we needed to be at this table. Unless we are in the conversation and helping others to best understand our unique role, and therefore relevant standards, we run the risk of these and any review not being accurate nor protective of our fabulous school nursing profession.
Back in June, we at the School and Public Health Nurses Association (SAPHNA), in partnership with the Institute of Health Visiting, sent very hard-hitting letters to Hampshire County Council and the then head of Public Health England (SAPHNA, 2021).
This was in response to radical, and in our opinion, dangerous proposed cuts to health visiting and school nursing including ‘substituting’ a Specialist Community Public Health School Nurse with a text offer for children over the age of 11. This, at a time when copious evidence points to an exponential rise in mental health and complex safeguarding issues. Since then there has been continuous pressure applied through national petitions and over 1500 responses to their consultation from their current provider, partners, stakeholders and, importantly service users. We have also had numerous high-level discussions that have served to build multiple strong strategic alliances and, this is key, raised the profile of the health and wellbeing of children, young people and families as well as our profession.
Ensuring our collective voices are heard is down to us as a professional organisation but also you as individuals. Again, unless we make it very clear that we disagree, utilising evidence with which to underpin this, then decisions will be made ‘unto’, rather than ‘with’. The decision from Hampshire County Council is still in abeyance; however, we are quietly, even if somewhat naively, confident we will have made some kind of positive impact.
Running simultaneously is ‘Protect the title Nurse in UK law’, a campaign headed by Emeritus Professor June Girvin and Professor Alison Leary, professor of healthcare and workforce modelling. They advise that currently, within UK law, the term nurse can be used by anyone. The term can be used to offer professional advice and services even by people who have no nursing qualifications, experience or have been struck off a professional register. Rightly recognising the risks to both the public and the profession, they too have launched a petition aiming to rectify this (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587939).
‘Unless we are in the conversation and helping others to best understand our unique role, and therefore relevant standards, we run the risk of these and any review not being accurate’
‘Many members told us they were shocked to learn that it wasn't already a title protected for those with the right training and qualifications to use, and all who responded to our discussion on this topic felt that it absolutely should be a protected title recognising nursing as a profession staffed by competent, professional highly trained individuals’.
I trained in the 70s. It took three years to gain my Registered General Nursing qualification, later I trained for an additional 18 months to also become a Registered Certified Midwife, add to that the School Nursing Certificate (12 months) and BSc Specialist Community Public Health Nursing to become a qualified school nurse plus lots of other additional specialities (e.g. family planning nursing) and latterly (to say nothing of the 40+ years experience), accredited prior experiential learning (APEL), to contribute toward gaining an MSc.
There are many of you who have done similar and many who have done even more.
Therefore, there is a lot in our ‘name’; a small unique workforce with a very significant contribution to offer in order to ensure it continues. Our children young people and families need us now more than ever.
Pull up a chair!
FURTHER INFORMATION
SAPHNA
https://saphna.co/