Update on RCN EGM – 24.Sep.2020

Members of a Petitioners’ Working Group (names below) and RCN Council members Jeremy Benton and Rod Thomson met this evening to discuss the Extraordinary General Meeting petition submitted on 1st September 2020. We discussed failures of RCN Governance that led to the RCN Presidential elections being paused, the disqualification of two candidates and the remaining …

Update on RCN EGM – 16th Sept 2020

“Despite our approaches, we have had no formal discussions with RCN Council to date. We have offered a meeting but this was postponed by Council at short notice. There has been no collaboration and, while we aim for a co-produced process, it is extremely disappointing that RCN Council and the Executive have put out statements …

Update on the RCN EGM

Discussions are underway following the submission of the EGM petition which so many of you signed. As the submitter of that petition, I am working with some of the original authors to sort out details of the EGM with representatives from RCN Council to figure out how we can go forward and get as many …

RCN presidential election 2020

The election of RCN President should be a celebration of the best our profession has to offer; every two years members are asked to vote for a nurse who will be a visible and vocal representative for nursing of all kinds across the UK. Sadly, this year opaque process and extremely questionable interpretations were used …

#NHSpay15 – part 2

The national protests by NHS workers showed the breadth and depth of anger within healthcare at the refusal to bring forward pay negotiations. Here's my closing speech from the Birmingham demonstration: "Today we, the frontline workers in the NHS, have spoken in unity to say that our pay and our conditions are not good enough. …

#NHSpay15

On Saturday 8th August 2020, healthcare staff across the UK gathered in cities and towns to call for pay negotiations to be opened immediately for NHS workers. My opening speech for the Birmingham event is below: We’re here to talk about pay. Those who work in the NHS have never done so for the fame …

Don’t Panic!

For those that don't know, in addition to being a mental health nurse whose job is to support people in crisis, I also have my own mental health issues to deal with - namely anxiety and panic disorder, which I've managed pretty well since my first panic attack more than three decades ago. For the …

#WMHD2018

Today it's World Mental Health Day, the time when for a brief moment some politicians appear on TV to say how concerned they are about mental health services (which they've been running since they appeared on TV last year saying the same thing) and how they are going to take bold action to make everything …

RCN Extraordinary General Meeting

I attended the RCN EGM today in Birmingham to hear from Council and colleagues before the confidence vote was held. I was one of the last to get a word in, here's what I had to say: I appreciate what has been said about keeping Council because they work hard in their spare time - …

#MHNursesDay

There's very rarely good news to shout about. So, here's some good news to shout about, and the whole point of the thing is to get good news and shout about it. My colleagues and I at the Royal College of Nursing Mental Health Forum have launched Mental Health Nurses' Day - an initiative to …