South West Clinical Forum 2023
Published: 20th Jan 2023
The South West's first Clinical Forum will be held online on the 17th May 2023
Critical Care Stocktake
Published: 11th Jan 2023
In June this year, a national critical care stocktake was undertaken which highlighted a number of areas for consideration for our network both now and in the future. Such issues relate to the number of critical care beds across the South West of England as well as reviewing our workforce. The Network Board has now started to consider and discuss the development of increased capacity and the workforce implications. We look forward to progressing this work in 2023.
National Critical Care News
Published: 10th Jan 2023
Critical Care Nurse Education A national investment of £10 million has been provided to support access for critical care registered nursing staff to undertake a national standard critical care course, two higher education Institutes have been successfully selected to deliver the course including competency Steps 1, 2 & 3 to the South West. Other providers of critical care education are available and we will be available for any region to apply to. We received additional investment for our critical care clinical educators; this funding would be for one year only and were targeted to increase the numbers of unit educators as well as supporting achievement of educational qualification.
Professional Nurse Advocate role
Published: 06th Jan 2023
Pre-COVID19 data showed that a third of Critical Care Nurses experienced severe burnout, with 86% experiencing one of the three classic symptoms of exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment. (Moss et al. 2016). The pandemic has exacerbated this exponentially, leading to a desperate need to prioritise the mental health and well-being of nurses and reduce emotional burnout, (Nicki Credland, Chair of BACCN, 2021). In response, Ruth May (Chief Nursing Officer for England) announced in March 2021 the immediate role out of the Professional Nurse Advocate Programme in England starting with 400 critical care nurses. Each Critical Care unit in South West has at least one nurse who has completed or is undertaking PNA training. They are there to support all critical care nurses through restorative clinical supervision (RCS), education/development and quality improvement.