Fellows’ Newsletter

Dear Fellow,

Fellows Convenor This is my final newsletter to you as your Convenor before I stand down at the end of my five year term of office. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to represent the Fellows and for all your help and support, especially from the members of the Co-ordinating Committee. I have enjoyed the work enormously and it has been a great pleasure to undertake this role at a time when there has been growing momentum behind strengthening the role of Fellows within the College. I look forward to seeing this continuing to develop.

It has been a privilege to contribute to some of the really important work underway in the College and ensure that you are all invited, as Fellows, to participate in many of these exciting projects. This includes the recent work on credentialing, considering a new clinical award and a proposal to introduce Fellowships by application.

I have also been a member of the Centenary Steering Committee and was invited to represent us at some fantastic events. The Fellows continue to support the Standard award for students and this includes sitting on the judging panel.

It has been a great honour to be your convenor and I look forward to watching our profession and the Fellows continue to grow in stature at the start of our next 100 years.

Full Fellows Meeting – 18 January 2017 Our next annual Fellows meeting takes place on Wednesday 18 January 2017, 11.30am – 3.30pm at RCN HQ in London.

The main topic for discussion will be the ambitious work programme that the RCN is developing under Janet Davies FRCN and Professor Dame Donna Kinnair’s leadership to strengthen the Royal College role.

At the meeting there will be an election for a new Fellows Convenor and for a new member of the Fellows Co-ordinating Committee which the Convenor chairs. This Committee meets 3-4 times a year to organise the activities of the Fellows.

If you wish to stand for election please take a moment to review the following documents:

• Election information and nomination form • Leaflet on RCN Fellowship (this sets out the role and responsibilities of the Fellows Convenor and the Fellows Co-ordinating Committee)

Completed nomination forms must be returned to Jane Clarke at 20 Cavendish Square, London, W1G 0RN or by email to [email protected] by 4.30pm on Wednesday 11 January 2017.

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Any Fellow who wishes to stand for election must be present at the meeting on 18 January and only those present will be eligible to vote.

I do hope you will be able to attend the meeting in January and I look forward to seeing you there. Please could I ask you to confirm your attendance to our Fellows Administrator, Caroline Clinker, by emailing her at [email protected] as soon as possible. Caroline will also be able to arrange your travel if you advise her of your requirements. Any travel within the UK and Eire will be funded by the RCN.

We also ask that you let us know in advance if you have any specific dietary requirements in order that we can ensure we cater to your needs.

Feedback from the Fellows 40th Anniversary Tea and Public Lecture Many of you attended the Fellows afternoon tea followed by the public lecture we hosted at RCN HQ on 14 July to mark the 40th year of RCN Fellows.

It was very special to see so many Fellows at the celebratory tea which was also part of the College’s centenary events. I have included a picture of us all below, and some additional photographs from the event at the end of this newsletter.

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Following an indulgent RCN tea we had an inspiring, informative and hugely enjoyable talk from Teresa Doherty, the RCN’s Library and Archive Services Joint Manager a summary of which can be found here.

The talk focused on personal stories of the nurses who made up the first cohort of Royal College of Nursing Fellows. It concluded with a review of how the Fellows create evidence of their lives and achievements to ensure their legacy is represented in future nursing histories.

In that connection there is also a flyer on the Library and Archives Fellows Collecting Project. If you still have all your material at home it would be absolutely great if you could find time to retrieve it for the RCN to hold in perpetuity.

We had a full-house for what was a stimulating and lively lecture and debate led by Professor June Andrews OBE FRCN and Baroness Joan Bakewell on the challenges the profession faces with an ageing population. The lecture was covered by Nursing Standard and, in case you missed it, you can read that article here. Professor Susan Read MBE FRCN also wrote up her own report of the meeting.

Looking forward we are hoping to arrange a similar public lecture in 2017 which will again be funded by the RCN Foundation as part of the public lecture series. We are planning to hold this on the same day as the Full Fellows meeting on 14 November. Further details for this event will be circulated as soon as they are available.

You may also be interested to take the opportunity to read this article about the 40 year history of the Fellows written by Professor Jennifer Hunt FRCN for the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Congress 2016 At Congress this year Fellows joined forces with the Health Practitioners Committee to run a fringe event on the role of support workers in the nursing team. While we only had a small audience for this, there was a very good discussion and some interesting feedback. A copy of a note of the meeting is can be found here. Since the event I have attended an HP Committee meeting and we are all keen to continue to champion the really important issues that were raised at the event.

Next year, we have asked that consideration be given to organising a professional lecture much like the John Goodlad lecture on the trade union side to showcase the exciting professional work that the College is taking forward at the moment.

Congress 2017 takes place in Liverpool 13-17 May. We will keep you informed of the arrangements for Fellows attending as discussions with regards to the plans progress.

2016 New Fellows The Awards Ceremony and the dinner we host at Congress were a highlight for Fellows again this year. We were delighted that all of our new Fellows

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Our new Fellows for 2016 are listed below:

Liz Bonner Serving on the RCN’s Continence Forum for many FRCN years, Liz’s work in this field is nationally and internationally acknowledged. Among her achievements is working with the UK Continence Society to produce minimum standards for continence care and representing the RCN on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Continence Care. Liz has also worked collaboratively to develop resources to help professionals caring for children with continence difficulties. Janice England Janice is highly regarded by her peers for her Gabriel drive to promote the concept of guaranteed safer FRCN intravenous therapy. Her innovative approach is recognised throughout Europe, Australia and the USA. She has been especially determined to improve patients’ comfort through challenging cancer treatments, playing a key role in moving care forwards. A visionary, Janice saw the potential for nurses to expand their practice in vascular access and oncology. She introduced the placement of peripherally inserted central catheters, before teaching the skill to hundreds of other nurses. Janice is also a pioneer, ensuring that patients and colleagues avoid the serious hazards of needle stick injuries, by introducing needle free systems for all intravenous specialities. Anne England Anne is a driving force for occupational health Harriss nursing and education, both in the UK and across FRCN Europe. With almost 25 years’ experience as an educator, she has been recognised by the Occupational Health Journal as one of the top 14 leading lights in her specialism - and the most significant educationalist. For the last 15 years, Anne has been using her holidays to do voluntary work in South Africa, playing a major role in improving the health care of an impoverished rural community, where AIDS is rife. To improve education, she developed an HIV/AIDS training programme, which is delivered annually. Professor With more than 35 years nursing experience in the Daniel Kelly NHS and higher education sectors in the UK, FRCN Daniel was appointed as the RCN’s Chair of Nursing Research in 2011. Alongside building a successful programme of nursing research at Cardiff University, he has continued to work with clinical colleagues to carry out his own research

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that contributes to practice development. In particular, he has worked with colleagues to address under-researched groups whose voices are marginalised, including young cancer patients. Last year, Daniel was appointed as President of the European Oncology Nursing Society Fiona England Dedicated, passionate and inspirational, Fiona’s Stephenson work centres around helping people injured FRCN through natural disasters, using every opportunity to focus attention and resources on their plight. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Fiona became the nurse in charge of a large spinal cord injury unit. Despite scarce and unreliable resources, here she established a centre of nursing excellence. One of her patients later represented his country in the Paralympic Games. Then when earthquakes struck Nepal in 2015, Fiona was one of the first nurses with spinal cord injury experience to respond, co-ordinating volunteers to work at a large unit. She has also set up the International Network for Spinal Cord Injury Nurses, actively supporting her nursing colleagues around the world. Professor Scotland Angela is Executive Nurse Director at NHS Forth Angela Valley. Here her dedicated and sustained focus Wallace has made sure that patients and their families are FRCN at the heart of everyone’s agenda. With a track record that stretches over her 25-year career history in Scotland, plus a reputation for making things happen, Angela’s achievements include creating, developing and implementing the first nursing and midwifery care assurance system in Scotland. This drives improvements in nursing, detecting changes that may prevent poor care. A strong advocate for nursing and its place at the top table, Angela is executive lead for the Scottish Patient Safety Programme – a role held by medical directors in all other boards. And she now chairs the Nurse Directors Group in Scotland.

We have also welcomed one Honorary Fellow this year:

Kirsty Kirsty Williams is the Welsh Assembly Member for Williams Brecon and Radnorshire. In 2013, Kirsty won the CBE AM ballot to introduce a private member’s bill - and FRCN she chose safe nurse staffing. After working closely with the RCN in Wales, this historic piece of legislation finally became law three years later - on 21 March this year. Now patients receive care from the correct number of staff, with the right knowledge and skills. Kirsty’s tenacity and her skill in steering the bill through its many stages, has

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put Wales in the vanguard of introducing safer nurse staffing levels across Europe. Undoubtedly it will save patients’ lives.

We are now encouraging nominations for Fellowships to be awarded at Congress 2017. Please do take some time to consider whether you know an outstanding nurse who should be recognised with this high honour. Information about how to make a nomination can be found on the RCN website. The deadline for nominations to be considered by the next meeting of the awards committee is 24 January.

Congratulations to Fellows Who Received an Honour in 2016 I would like to extend the congratulations of all Fellows to Professor Ruth Northway OBE FRCN and Professor June Andrews OBE FRCN who received awards in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Working with Countries and Regions Country and Regional Directors are keen to see us more involved in local RCN work and with this in mind they have asked us to let them have short biographies of all Fellows and a note of issues that you would be keen to be involved in.

We would therefore be grateful if you could all complete this form to provide some further information about your knowledge and experience for us to share with Country and Regional Directors. Please return this to [email protected]. You can also keep us up to date with your contact information using the same form when any changes are required.

Best wishes,

Jane Denton CBE FRCN Chair, RCN Fellows Co-ordinating Committee

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