News

Chief Nursing Officer bids to develop Compassion in Practice

Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England, today called on the nursing, midwifery and wider clinical professions and the public to engage with the development of a strategy to follow ‘Compassion in Practice’.

Speaking at the Health and Innovation Expo 2015 conference in Manchester, she said: “We want to build this vision from what people say and what people do, and to get a consensus of these views. This will take all of us.”

The three year ‘Compassion in Practice‘ strategy concludes in March 2016. It has delivered, among others, safe staffing guidance in the NHS Contract, a Learning Disability health equality framework, developed an open and honest care programme for maternity services, published a barometer for organisations to gauge their culture of care, researched shift patterns and launched resources to raise concerns.

Jane Cummings explained that since the strategy was written “the landscape has changed”.

She said “choices and decisions now had to be made” for what the next steps would be.

The engagement process to develop a follow-on strategy started in May with exploratory discussions, followed by more intensive engagement at meetings and events. Workshops, surveys, Twitter chats and webinars will take place to increase engagement opportunities.

Early conversations across a wide range of clinicians indicate an appetite for a follow-on strategy, and that it should go beyond nursing and midwifery.

Some emerging themes from engagement so far include: Population health, the personalisation agenda, productivity, safety &staffing, service transformation, innovation & improvement, developing and sustaining the workforce.

Jane Cummings explained: “The ‘Compassion in Practice‘ strategy shows what can be achieved when organisations work together.

“In developing a follow-on strategy, we aim to deliver a vision that reflects the values of the 6Cs, is in line with the ambitions of the public and professions, addresses key challenges for providers and commissioners in relation to service delivery, sets a direction of travel longer than two or three years, and goes wider than nursing and midwifery in its appeal to other health and care professionals.

“The emerging themes support the aims of the NHS Five Year Forward View, demonstrating that the professions are taking it on board and are looking for ways to align their work with it.

“By going beyond a two or three year strategy, we could potentially reach the next generation of health and care professionals. Ongoing engagement opportunities across the professions will enable us to share lessons from ‘Compassion in Practice’ and the 6Cs and explore the emerging themes more fully.

“To engage with us, look out for Twitter chats and webinars via @WeNurses and @6CsLive using #ourvision, and email your views to: england.ourvision@nhs.net“.