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We will listen to all our members – RCN head’s pledge to college reps

Acting chief executive said decision-making should be open to the whole membership
Donna Kinnair

Acting chief executive said decision-making should be open to the whole membership


Dame Donna Kinnair.

The RCN's acting chief executive says she wants to empower members to change the way they work by 'listening to and hearing' them.

Dame Donna Kinnair also said college decision-making should not be centralised, but open to all.

Aim of empowering members

Her remarks come after a tumultuous period for the college last year when its leaders resigned following a vote of no confidence prompted by anger at the college's handling of the NHS pay deal in England.

Professor Kinnair told the RCN joint reps conference in Leeds on Thursday she wanted to 'empower everyone in the RCN to feel they have the power to transform the way they work.' 

'We want our members to live and breathe our work all year round'

Dame Donna Kinnair

She said: 'To do this, we need to listen and we need to hear.'

Pressing issues for nurses

The two-day conference brings together the college’s workplace representatives from across the UK to discuss issues including NHS pay, how to engage members and the RCN's safe staffing campaign.

'We want our members to live and breathe our work all year round,' she added. 'We are committed to using our safe staffing campaigning to deepen and enrich our engagement with members.

'We need to be inclusive – decision-making shouldn’t be centralised and held by the few. It should be shared and we should all feel like we can influence decision-making.'

Safe staffing campaign

Representatives will also learn how they can influence the RCN’s campaign for safe and effective staffing by accessing local data.

The RCN’s UK safety reps committee chair Denise McLaughlin said: 'Safety representatives have a unique role in how we make the argument that England needs a law to enshrine safe and effective staffing.

'While lots of information about nursing staff is publicly available and easy to access, other sets of data that nurses deserve to know are more difficult to access and scrutinise. 

'This discussion during the conference will empower representatives to build up a body of evidence that gives the real picture about how safe staffing levels are in their area.'


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