#Proud to be a nurse
A round-up on this year's Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Nursing Conference, held on May 5.
The aim of this year’s Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Nursing Conference, which was held on May 5 at the Met Hotel, Leeds, was to raise the profile of nursing and celebrate diversity.
How did we do? Well, even if you weren’t one of the 152 attendees you may well have seen the action online – tweets using the conference hashtag #proudtobeanurse, reached 24,076 timelines across the Twittersphere. Incredible.
The event was led by our Director of Nursing, Anthony Deery, and warmly chaired by Malcolm Rae, former Joint Lead for the Acute Care Programme of the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIHME). Malcolm never fails to mention the positive experiences he has had working with LYPFT staff and services over the years, and this occasion was no different.
The jam-packed agenda was kicked off by Assistant Director for Strategy at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Emma Westcott. Revalidation is at the forefront of the minds of the 690,000 nurses on the NMC register. That’s a huge number to get through revalidation over the next three years, but Emma reassured the attendees of the robust three year evaluation in place to make sure it has the right impact.
Next up was University of Leeds Chair of Mental Health Nursing, Professor John Baker. John spoke about the meaning of safer staffing and what that looks like in services, something we are all concerned about. He left us no doubt in terms of senior staff setting the tone of the organisation, and that clinical leadership is the key to providing good services. But that doesn’t let anyone who isn’t a senior lead off the hook!
Everyone has a role to play in terms of the values and behaviours we demonstrate and expect of each other – that was the message from the Trust’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Caroline Bamford, as she addressed the conference. Caroline, who maintains that feedback and constructive challenge are always good, ended her session with two questions – what does the term ‘culturally competent’ mean, and do you require it? Our next speaker, Dave Neita, certainly helped us to focus in on this. The People’s Lawyer and People’s Poet had a suitably creative title for his presentation, “The legacy of Mary and Joseph: principles from the service of Mary Seacole and the leadership of David Israel”. He used art to teach lessons in diversity, telling the story of how avoiding or ignoring diversity can change meaning and adversely affect outcomes. It was an interactive and inspiring presentation that truly captivated the audience. As one attendee tweeted “wish I could’ve bottled your words today, thank you!”
The discussions and debate continued over lunch and the poster presentations from teams across the Trust provided much food for thought. The afternoon was largely dominated by a programme of workshops. The sessions were delivered by our own staff and provided real insight into how their respective services approach diversity. It really was a great showcase for all the great work happening right now across the Trust.
Our final speaker was Nashiru Momori, founder of Real INSIGHT, an organisation which aims to transform services through user involvement. Nash shared his personal experiences of inpatient and community services, drug dependency and the criminal justice system. He rounded off the day with strong messages about trust and respect, diversity in thinking, and how asking people what experiences are like for them supports positive outcomes.
The whole day was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on our role as mental health and learning disability nurses, both in terms of the positive differences we make to people’s lives every day, and part we play as flag bearers of the organisation. I left the conference feeling energised, optimistic and most definitely #proud to be a nurse.
Linda Rose
Assistant Director of Nursing