Welsh CNO ‘proud’ of awards endorsement for her profession
Chief nursing officer for Wales Jean White has spoken of her pride at the ‘ringing endorsement’ of health professionals in the country following several wins at the RCNi Nurse Awards.
Melanie Davies, a ward sister at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, was named RCN nurse of the year at the awards on 5 May for her work championing the well-being of people with learning disabilities.
Other winners include Anne Thomas, who won the community nursing award, and Cemlyn Roberts, who won the healthcare assistant award. Both work at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in north Wales.
‘It says everything to me that all these winners wanted to come out and say “this is who were are and this is what we are doing”, professor White told Nursing Standard.
‘It really is fantastic news and makes me feel so proud about the ringing endorsement of Wales’ health service.’
Nursing in Wales was in the spotlight during May.
First, a major campaign was launched to promote Wales as a place for nurses to train, work and live .
Then, on 10 May, the Chief Nursing Officer’s Showcase Conference in Cardiff gave healthcare workers with opportunities to share experiences, innovative ideas and good practice.
Training
The sixth showcase conference was attended by over 200 delegates, including nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses, health care support workers and students.
Speaking to Nursing Standard at the conference professor White added: ‘Wales, like many other parts of the world, has a shortage of healthcare professionals, although we do have more nurses now than we have had for decades.
‘We are also training more than at any time since devolution happened in 1999. However, it is going to take three to four years before this flow comes into the system.
‘Besides, we cannot simply train our way out of this problem, we have got to recruit too.
‘This is stage two of a three-pronged recruitment drive; the first was for junior doctors and we have already seen a 16% rise in their numbers as a result.
‘Wales is a perfect place to live and be a nurse. Where I live I am literally 30 minutes from the mountains, 30 minutes from the beach and 30 minutes from a city centre.’
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