Posted on: 12 May 2022
Today we celebrate everyone in nursing for everything you do, here at CNWL in every service, location and borough.
We have over 3,000 nurses and myself and the Directors of Nursing sent a card (I enclose a copy below) as a small thank you for the huge job you do.
And our thanks and appreciation includes all who work on the Bank, a big part of the CNWL Nursing team.
I also want to mention the 81 who joined us as Support Workers last week, recruited at the special event where all London Trusts recruited 641 new staff all together.
I am sure that amongst those recruits are future charge nurses, consultant nurses, Matrons, clinical leads and even Directors of Nursing! Every opportunity is open to you all.
I want you to celebrate today in your usual enthusiastic ways! Please send photos to communications.cnwl@nhs.net so we can tweet about you, in all your brilliance!
It was only a month ago that hundreds of us came together face to face at our Nursing Conference and what an uplifting, inspiring time it was! – see the films, the facts and the stories here: https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/news/cnwl-holds-first-post-covid-nursing-conference
We’ll be featuring more from that event throughout the day – especially the films about being More than a Nurse.
We had five of our nurses representing CNWL at last night’s Westminster Abbey Florence Nightingale Commemoration. They were: Kim Cox - Director of Nursing Jameson, Michelle Gardiner - CIS Rapids, Carol Smith – Milton Keynes Safeguarding, Edwin Onase - Matron SPRU, Jude Kearns - London CAMHs.
Kim says: “After my amazing emotional evening at the Florence Nightingale Service, I logged onto their twitter account and saw their new banner featuring no less than our own Assistant Directors of Nursing Guy Powell and Bertha Matunge. So proud to be CNWL nurse today.”
There’s a national Here for Life campaign launched today too.
Here for Life is a collaboration between the Chief Nursing Officers of the UK and Ireland and the RCN Foundation and showcases the professionalism, knowledge, competence and expertise of nurses and midwives and the diverse and rewarding opportunities these roles can offer as a career.
A survey of 2,000 adults shows that while the majority of people admire nurses, fewer people understand the responsibilities these roles entail and the opportunities they offer. The campaign is for people to learn more about what nursing means in today’s world.
People said:
- Nursing is considered one of the top three most important professions in the UK - with doctors and firefighters in the top three.
- Nine in ten (89%) of people in the UK admire nurses and 31% of people would consider becoming one. A quarter (26%) of people would think about being a midwife.
- Only 15% of people associate nurses with making decisions about diagnosis and treatment and just 5% know they are involved in researching new treatments and therapies.
- Only half (53%) know that some nurses can prescribe drugs and over a third (37%) are unaware that nurses lead other teams of professionals.
There’s so much to be proud of.
Every advert that lands on the TV, radio or in the press is nowhere near as effective as explaining what it is that brought you into nursing and the responsibility you carry for patient care.
We want to feature more of you and the work you do so, please tell me if you want your story told.
We are so grateful you are with us now and thankful for the lives you’ve touched, lives changed, with your compassion and skills.
The card we sent says:
With my best wishes and heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you on International Nurses Day!
Maria
Maria O’Brien
CNWL Chief Nurse
