When I came to my post as lead nurse for West Somerset Primary Care Network (WSPCN) in September 2023, one of my main objectives was to improve the working relationships between the nurses in general practice and the community.
I had been privileged in my early career to have had the influence and support of some truly inspirational community nurses who taught me the value of working collaboratively and of nurses supporting each other, especially in isolated and rural communities like this one. I had noticed a profound change in that support in recent years with nurses so busy that they rarely communicated or had access to support outside of their own teams. I had also noted that new nurses training or coming to the area to work might benefit from getting to know nurses in different locations and local teams.
I decided to apply the RCN Workforce Standards Checklists as a tool with each member practice to allow me to map areas for improvement and isolate needs for nursing teams. Working with nurses and lead nurses in each team I used this as an opportunity to introduce myself and my role, and to build relationships in each team. It became clear that each practice worked in a unique way and there was huge potential for shared learning between the practice nursing teams.
I used the data gathered to paint a picture of nursing needs and I used standard 14: 'The Nursing Workforce is supported to practice self-care and given opportunities at work to look after themselves' to pitch an idea close to my heart 'The Nurses Network'.
These network meetings would be designed to bring nursing teams together, improving communication and networking between these teams so nurses could draw on this support to improve mental health and stress management .The understanding was these meetings would focus on nursing wellbeing and restorative clinical supervision. This project had the overall aim to improve working relationships, build confidence and support retention and recruitment into community teams. (RCN Nursing Workforce Standards 2021).
