Celebrate the fantastic job you do, chief nurse urges profession

Nurses need to work together to demonstrate the profession’s unique contribution to patient care, says England’s chief nurse.

NHS England chief nursing officer Jane Cummings said it was an honour to attend the RCN international centenary conference in London on Tuesday.

Stronger together

‘As a profession working together we can support each other and make a huge difference for our patients,’ Professor Cummings told a packed auditorium.

‘We are genuinely stronger together.

‘We have four countries, four different health systems and different ways in which health systems are set up, but working in collaboration, and in Europe and further afield, we are stronger together.’

Unique contribution

Professor Cummings told the audience that nurses needed to recognise they were often not good enough at articulating and demonstrating the impact of their work.

‘I don’t think we should be justifying our role, because I don’t think we need to, but I do think we should explain it and articulate it – how can we demonstrate our unique contribution.’

She urged every nurse to learn to talk about the impact of their own work.

‘Think about what you are doing that is good,’ she said. ‘You are not “just doing your job” – often you are doing a really fantastic job. It is about celebrating it. We don’t do that enough.’