National programme seeks to create nurse leaders in older people's care

The director of nursing at Health Education England is optimistic that a national fellowship programme will spur more nursing students to consider a career in older people’s nursing.

Writing in the March issue of Nursing Older People journal, Lisa Bayliss-Pratt says that there is still some way to go to ensure the specialty of older people’s nursing is given ‘the status it deserves’.

She emphasises the need for ‘confident, visible and vocal leaders’ in the specialty and points to Health Education England’s (HEE) development of the Older Person’s Nurse Fellowship programme in partnership with King’s College London.

The aim of the fellowship is to create nurse leaders who are recognised experts in the care of older people with complex needs and who can drive change.

She envisages the creation of ‘pioneering older people’s nurse leaders’ who will raise the profile of the specialty, build a robust evidence base, trial new ideas on behalf of organisations such as HEE and demonstrate the link between good quality education and improved patient outcomes.

‘This is the first national programme of its kind and my hope is that it will put older people’s nursing on the map and show undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students that there are great career pathways in this specialty.’

Read the opinion column in Nursing Older People