Celebrating CNWL’s Chief Nurse Fellows – our Nursing Stars of the future

Congratulations to CNWL’s second cohort of Chief Nurse Fellows for completing their fellowship.

We celebrated today with a ceremony, presenting each of our three fellows with a certificate, trophy and a badge. We said thank you for their efforts and hard work over the last year, and the three Fellows unveiled the findings of their research projects.

The Fellowship Programme is a year-long experience for individual nurses and tailored to their needs, with the aim of advancing nursing excellence and leadership. It specifically focuses on developing our nurses who are black minority ethnic.

Opening the celebration, Chief Nurse, Maria O’Brien, said:

“It’s fantastic work you’ve done over the last year, and it’s one of the happiest moments attending the fellowship ceremony. The fellowship is not about doing a course, it’s about getting exposure to things you wouldn’t be able to in your day to day role, and being able to think about yourself and where your development needs are”.

The research projects included analysing digital literacy in our mental health staff; understanding the development of Band 7 mental health nurses at CNWL; and the effectiveness of appraisals for continuing professional development.

Chief Nurse Fellow, Richard Mandiveyi, conducted research into appraisals and supervision. He said additional support was needed for staff on busy mental health wards:

“At the moment supervision is often  focused on operational things like bed management. We need to look at more time off the ward for supervision and raise awareness of how education training plans can link into service improvement”.

Read more about the projects below:

• Exploring the link between the quality of supervision and appraisal to continued professional development 
• Understanding the roles and development of Band 7 mental health nurses in CNWL
• Digital literacy in mental health staff

Ceylon’s work on the fellowship project also resulted in a published articled for a Nursing Management journal. Read the full article online.

Each of the fellows was provided with a mentor in the Directors of Nursing, as well as regular access to our Chief Nurse.

Director of Nursing for Jameson Division, Kim Cox, said: “I’m proud of the way the Fellows have flourished and grown in confidence”.

Wrapping up the ceremony, we were pleased to introduce our next cohort of Chief Nurse Fellows.

The Fellows will be starting later this month (October 2023), and they are:

Margaret said: “I’m looking forward to the networking opportunities and how I can grow as a black woman to be a role model for my community”.

Congratulations to them all!