NURSING MANAGEMENTApril 2009 | Volume 16 | Number 18
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Opinion
Letters
If you want to express your opinions on any of the issues in Nursing Management,
email the editor at nick.lipley@rcnpublishing.co.uk
What's your view?
New horizons
I am stepping down next month from
my job at NHS Connecting for Health
(NHS CFH) so this is a good time for me
to reflect on what has been achieved over
the four years I have been in post.
First, nurses and midwives are more
aware than ever of what information
technology (IT) can do, and many
nurses are involved in designing
and implementing systems in their
organisations. By doing so, they have
ensured that nursing practice data can be
gathered efficiently, and that care can be
delivered more safely and effectively.
Every time I meet colleagues and
witness what they are doing up and down
the country, I hear how IT improves the
care they provide, saves them time and
reduces stress.
These testimonies clearly show the
importance and value of NHS CFH, and
the contribution it has made to the NHS.
But this contribution could not
have been made without the support
of organisations such as the Nursing
and Midwifery Council, the RCN, the
Community Practitioners' and Health
Visitors' Association and Unison.
I am delighted to welcome Ros Moore
to the post of director of nursing at
NHS CFH. Now that she can commit all
her energies to the organisation's work,
many of its projects can be undertaken
more quickly and thoroughly.
Certainly, areas such as developing
a nursing language for IT, support tools,
care plans and pathways will benefit
from her knowledge and skills.
I would also like to take this
opportunity to thank colleagues in
NHS CFH, and all my nursing and
midwifery colleagues, who have supported
and assisted variously in developing and
implementing IT systems. I look forward
to seeing continued progress.
Barbara Stuttle is the director of quality in
nursing at NHS South West Essex Primary Care
Trust and is a national clinical lead for nursing
and midwifery at NHS Connecting for Health
Theatre nurse shortages
The RCN document, Breaking Down Barriers,
Driving Up Standards, represents a milestone
in the history of the college because it
paves the way for nursing to regain its once
unquestioned role as a profession of the
highest esteem.
It outlines the future of ward sisters and
charge nurses in the NHS as envisaged by
the college's executive council.
This vision is endorsed by the presidents
of several national associations including
John Black, president of The Royal College of
Surgeons of England.
The authority of ward sisters and charge
nurses as the advocates of hospital patients
is well established in the minds of the British
public and this document should rekindle this
long association. It should also allow ward
sisters and charge nurses once again to fulfil
their role unhindered.
The RCN must be congratulated for taking
this first step towards reestablishing nursing
as a leading profession in the UK.
I would ask the RCN though to consider
the plight of theatre nurses, or rather the
plight of those who work in theatres with
too few adequately trained theatre nurses.
Over the past three or four decades,
the number of trained theatre nursing staff
has decreased so much that we now must
either employ nurses from overseas or train
nonnursing personnel to fill the gap.
Nursing theatre staff are vital if we are
to continue to provide surgical excellence
in this country.
Their contribution to the proper running
of theatres cannot be overestimated and
their professionalism in the daytoday
treatment of patients in the theatre
environment is crucial.
The reasons for the gradual decline in
the number of theatre nurses is no doubt
multifactorial but I would argue that, in the
same way that the RCN has investigated and
rejuvenated the proper role of ward sisters
and charge nurses, addressing this decline
should be considered another vital component
of the nursing strategy.
If the RCN can deal with this defect in
our national resources in the way it has so
competently dealt with the position of ward
sisters and charge nurses, then patients,
surgeons and managers will gain enormously.
The college will also be able to take full
credit for continuing to improve the status
and position of nursing staff in the overall
working of the NHS.
Michael Parker is a council member of
The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Social enterprise
The article on doityourself involvement with
social enterprises for senior nurse managers
(A guide to setting up social enterprises,
Nursing Management, March) fails to
tackle some of the less savoury aspects
of this healthcare initiative.
Social enterprises are privately run
companies that bid to win contracts to
provide health care. Here at the union Unite,
which has members across the NHS, we think
that tens of thousands of NHS employees
could lose out on pay and pensions if they are
transferred to social enterprises.
These organisations are outside the NHS
so Agenda for Change pay and conditions
do not necessarily apply to them. Existing
staff may, or may not, be covered by Transfer
of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
legislation and their pensions must be only
broadly comparable to those available under
the NHS scheme.
Meanwhile, the need to win contracts
against potentially tough competition, possibly
from multinational companies, may lead to
a reduction in the number of staff and an
erosion of their conditions.
The public has yet to wake up to the
massive impact social enterprises will have on
the NHS. This is the privatisation of the NHS
on a large and untested scale.
Karen Reay is national officer
for health at Unite

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