At the time I was working as the lead nurse for the care homes team at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in North Devon.
So, I created a bulletin with links and summaries of the most useful guidance to share with care homes, and as I'm a Queen's Nurse I shared it with the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), who posted it in their Facebook care home network group, making it accessible to care homes nationally to help them navigate the maze of ever-changing rules and regulations during Covid.
In care homes, and many other independent sector roles, you utilise a broad range of skills and knowledge. I believe that those working in the independent sector deserve parity of pay and conditions with the NHS and both sectors should support each other. In my role I hope to support those working in care homes and other independent health and care sector roles, promoting networking so that staff can support each other.
The RCN supports members working for more than 25,000 different independent health and social care employers. As the new independent sector lead for RCN South West, I have hopes to improve the membership experience of our members working in the sector, first and foremost by facilitating networking with each other.
Before I got this job, while exploring the possibilities inherent in my RCN membership I became a learning rep and I was determined to encourage independent health and social care sector members to join the RCN’s Devon branch meetings. So I suggested that we set up meetings in acute and community settings, including care homes. We were just building up momentum when Covid hit and I was redeployed.
What Covid has done is encouraged virtual events, which in a way has meant that RCN events became more accessible than they used to be; we had members joining virtual branch learning events from other branch areas and even different parts of the country. In that way it opened up the RCN and made its events more accessible to members.
It was amazing to see the RCN Care Home Network being launched as I was instrumental in getting it off the ground, so when it came to fruition I saw the true power of membership.
I also joined the executive committee of the Older People’s forum, which allowed me to bang the drum for the sector on the committee, as I was incredibly passionate about supporting care homes at the time. One of the things that the RCN’s 2020 Independent Health and Social Care Strategy has brought about, other than my new role, is that more members from the sector are being appointed to executive committees and governance roles, which is important, given how many of our members work in the sector.
Read more: Nursing across independent health and social care services.
Now, as independent health and social care sector lead for the RCN, I’m able to bring members together from across the sector. Imagine your collective power as a sector if you put your mind to something and use the RCN to achieve it. As a first step, please join the RCN South West Independent Health and Social Care Facebook group, tell me who you are and where you work, and I will do my best for you.
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If you’re not a Facebook person, that’s alright, not everyone is – my email is sarah.winfield-davies@rcn.org.uk – please do get in touch with me if you have any issues or ideas for projects to bring about improvements you’d like to see in your sector. This is very early days for my role, and the role of the independent sector leads in each of the RCN regions and countries.
Let’s see where they take us.
