'We can put our heads down and do nothing - or we can take action'

It is disheartening to open the newspapers or turn on the television and, once again, be forced to witness so much negativity about nursing. Aren’t you, like us, fed up with the bad news stories? BBC’s Panorama last week showed disgusting standards of care at Winterbourne View care home and this comes shortly after the recent Dispatches programme showing the same and the Care Quality Commission’s report, revealing substandard care for older people, hitting the headlines.

The CQC had investigated older people’s experiences of standards of essential care in NHS hospitals, and found that some people were not treated with dignity and respect or kept properly hydrated and nourished. Poor essential care is never acceptable but, as is often the case, the media made scant mention of the excellent work being done by many nurses, who were maintaining patient dignity, hydration and nutrition levels, and creating excellent patient experience. Those few hospitals (three out of 12) that did fall down on standards raise the question: why are we still not getting the essentials right every time?

The debate about why instances of poor care continue to happen rumbles on. In the face of this unacceptable situation - poor care is always poor care - we nurses struggle to maintain our respectable public image and our well-founded professional pride. So where exactly is it going wrong? The answer is complex but there can be no doubt that there is an awful lot to do. Blame does not help those who have suffered poor care but we do need to address the facts and make every effort to prevent it happening again. So what can we do to ensure we continue to improve quality for every individual and highlight our justifiable pride in our profession?

Individually we have a choice about how we respond to the issue of making sure essential care is an absolute given and how committed we are to improving care. The NHS is facing huge challenges - we can put our heads down and do nothing or we can take action. We need to harness our collective energy, commitment and expertise to create the power and show the incredible contribution nurses make every day. Don’t you think it’s time to reclaim our achievements and stand up for what is right?

We now have a mechanism to do this. Energise for Excellence (E4E) is a call to action for nurses and midwives. It is about mobilising nurses and midwives across the NHS to improve the quality of care and make the best use of resources. E4E is about you making a personal commitment to do something to make a difference and, importantly, sharing this with others.

As nurses, we are not always very good at sharing and celebrating success. Sharing what you did and how you did it can inspire others and encourage them to make a difference in their organisation. It creates a sense of hope and reminds us about why we came into nursing in the first place. I know many of us are already making great improvements, so why not tell others about them?

E4E can help. It brings together under one umbrella an array of tools, approaches and measures to help you focus on what you want to do - give information and great examples to help others in your area of care. We all know that sometimes it’s the simplest changes that make the biggest improvements. It’s time for us nurses to harness the power that we have and lead the change.

You can find out more at www.dh.gov.uk/energiseforexcellence or sign up to Energise for Excellence at e4e.hia@westmidlands.nhs.uk

Jane Cummings is chief nurse and deputy chief executive, NHS North West, and senior responsible officer, E4E; Michelle Mello is national implementation director, E4E

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment.