Posted 17 April 2024 - 13:00
Posted 17 April 2024 - 13:00
News
What next – and who next – for nursing?
As England’s chief nurse Ruth May announces she is stepping down, we look at what nurses want the next CNO to prioritise for the benefit of staff and patients
As England’s chief nurse Ruth May announces she is stepping down, we look at what nurses want the next CNO to prioritise for the benefit of staff and patients
Nurses have called for the next chief nurse to push for safe staffing legislation and pay equity, following the announcement of Ruth May’s retirement.
Chief nursing officer (CNO) for England Dame Ruth said she ‘will always be proud to be a nurse’ as she shared her retirement news on X (formerly Twitter):
She added: ‘Although recent years have been the most challenging for the NHS, nurses, midwives, nursing associates and health and care support staff have together achieved so much.’
Nurses share their chief nursing officer views on social media
As Dame Ruth announced her departure, nurses called for her successor to prioritise championing fair pay and banding for nurses to reflect their skills, as well as mandatory safe staffing ratios in the NHS, and even a lower pension age.
While many acknowledged it was ‘a tough job,’ others called for a fresh approach with a new CNO that has recent front-line experience of nursing.
Dame Ruth leaves ‘big shoes to fill’ after long career in nursing
Dame Ruth began her nursing training in 1985 and later became a theatre sister at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. She took up the post of England’s CNO in January 2019, and in June 2022 was awarded a DBE for her services to nursing, midwifery and the NHS, as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Honours.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said Dame Ruth will leave ‘big shoes to fill’, and highlighted her success as a leader of nurses and midwives through the COVID-19 pandemic when she returned to the front line to work ‘under cover’ at Colchester Hospital in 2020.
In June of that year, media reports suggested that she was dropped from a Number 10 press briefing for refusing to defend Dominic Cummings.
Mr Cummings, who was chief adviser to then-prime minister Boris Johnson, had come under fire for moving his family 260 miles to Durham to stay on his parents’ farm during lockdown.
Dame Ruth praised for pandemic leadership
Ms Pritchard added: ‘Throughout her career, Ruth has worked tirelessly to nurture the next generations of NHS nursing and midwifery leaders, and to support nurses, nursing associates, midwives and healthcare support staff to do their very best for their patients and families.
‘This was never more important, and more visible, than during the pandemic, when Ruth led the nursing and midwifery professions’ response, for which I am enormously grateful.’
In other news