A Nurse in Time Saves Nine

Last week was full of good memories for me. Let’s start with the centenary celebration of the opening of the General Nursing Council for England and Wales’ official register. This is the register that all nurses and midwives must be on in order to practice. Over the past 100 years the register has grown year on year, and now holds 732,000 nurse, midwife and nursing associates names on it. My name was entered onto the register in 1978. It was a proud moment in my life. Last week I was warmed by the large number of newly qualified nurses who expressed their delight on social media on becoming a nurse.

The nurse register opened in 1923, and famously, it was the nurse pioneer, Ethel Fenwick whose name appears first. She was State Registered Nurse No. 1. You can read about Ethel’s contribution to nursing here on the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) website. It was a formidable contribution and much of her work underpins the profession today. The NMC itself only came into being in 2002, and it was formerly the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC). I still have my original UKCC registration card. The legislation that underpins the work of the NMC is now over 20 years old, and is perhaps in need of revision. For example, some readers of this blog may be aware that there is currently a campaign to protect the title of ‘nurse’.

Anyone can call themself a nurse. Indeed, a recent example is the Covid 19 conspiracy theorist Kate Shemirani, a former nurse struck off for spreading disinformation, who has vowed to continue to call herself a nurse. Ian Levy, a Tory MP for Blyth Valley called himself a mental health nurse in his election campaign, until he was called out by the media, when he admitted he had, in fact been a nursing assistant. As the title ‘nurse’ is not protected by law, whereas the title ‘registered nurse’ is, Levy did not violate the Nurses Registration Act (1919). This is a great example of how the title ‘nurse’ can be used to mislead the wider public, and for someone to gain from such deception.  

Anyway, I digress, let’s get back to those good memories. Unbeknown to me, a year before I became a nurse, Radio Starlion was established. This is a hospital radio station that broadcasts its programme to Stepping Hill Hospital, part of the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust where I’m a Chair. Last week I got to meet Alan, the Radio Starlion Manager. What a character! He has been part of the radio station for some 44 years and leads a team of 8 volunteers who gather patient requests and dedications and then transform them into radio programmes.

We had a lot in common. We were men of an age that actually listened to original pirate radio station Radio Caroline. Interestingly, when writing this blog, I put ‘Radio Caroline’ into my search engine, and to my surprise, they still exist, see here. Not quite the underground radio station I once listened too, however. He had a magnificent collection of single and LPs. I was slightly jealous, having given all my LPs away for a charity auction a few years ago. Back in 1984, I presented a radio programme on Sunday mornings at Bolton Hospital, and did so for about 18 months.

I also told Alan the story of our recent wedding celebrations which was based upon the festival Woodstock. One of the things we did was to use single records as the place mats. One of my grandsons was really taken with these singles, and proceeded to collect them over the course of the evening. He now has quite a collection. It’s his birthday later on this month I have promised to buy him a record player to play the records on. It was an interesting conversation for Alan and I, but I’m not sure it was for my two Matron colleagues, Emma and Mamoona, who were too young to know about such things and events. But a big thank you to them for facilitating the visit.

Alan and his team of volunteers are part of the hidden army of likeminded folk who want to make a difference to the lives of others. They often go unnoticed. Which I find strange. There are over 3 million volunteers who contribute to the work of the NHS. Despite what the UK politicians might claim, had it not been for these volunteers and those like them, we probably wouldn’t have managed to get through the pandemic or the vaccination programme. As the challenges of the pandemic continue to shape how health and care services are provided in the future we need to think differently about how and who are involved in keeping us well and healthy.

That said, I have to admit I was slightly taken back, on waking up yesterday to hear our Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid ordering a shake up of NHS leadership. Now the NHS has been almost been in a state of flux since its inception. Change has been a constant companion to all those working in the NHS. I am not sure what Sajid’s proposed review will achieve. The former Vice Chief of the Defence staff, General Sir Gordon Messenger will lead this review, alongside with Dame Linda Pollard, the Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital. These are two good folk. Both have a successful record of transformation and change management. Time will tell if this review yields useful results. However, I think today, many NHS mangers will be dismayed, and might feel that the review is an overt criticism of their efforts to date.

I’m taking a slightly different approach. I was struck that the name ‘Gordon’ features in both the leader of this review, and our Ethel Fenwick, whose full name was actually, Ethel ‘Gordon’ Fenwick. She was once described as having a curious mind, she was a fierce debater and was uncompromising in her beliefs. Let’s hope those involved in this review are also like minded.