I have been in post for a month now as the new Nurse Director and Chief Executive of QNIS and just wanted to share some thoughts about our direction of travel and to invite you to share the journey in this our 125th Anniversary year. It has been a brilliant few weeks and I have really enjoyed getting to know the team and meeting everyone, particularly at our conference.
The Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland has a clear vision is to promote excellence in community nursing which is absolutely central to the Scottish Government’s 2020 Vision for the National Health Service, ‘that by 2020 everyone is able to live longer healthier lives at home, or in a homely setting’. And ‘that we will have a healthcare system where we have integrated health and social care, a focus on prevention, anticipation and supported self-management’. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Policy/Quality-Strategy/routemap2020vision
Community nursing is at the very heart of all the proposals within the Government’s vision and QNIS has a key role in working with you to realise the 2020 Vision in Scotland in a number of important ways:
- Championing innovative nursing roles in the community
- Advocating for the most disadvantaged in society
- Enabling nursing entrepreneurs
- Promoting evidence-based practice
- Campaigning for systems of care designed around individuals and communities supported by effective IT.
- And drawing on the wisdom of the retired Queens Nurses.
On the wall of our office is a document from our centenary in 1989 and I would like to reiterate what our predecessors committed themselves to 25 years ago.
Today the Institute accepts with pride and humility the original and continuing challenge of its Royal Charter to promote a high standard of nursing and preventative care in endeavouring to further the nation’s health. To this end the Scottish Branch of the Institute will pursue education, research and the pioneering of new services and dissemination of information in cooperation with other appropriate agencies.
Please join us and get involved. Many of you are already contributing enormously through roles on our committees or as volunteers and fellows, and there are many other ways to contribute. In particular we’d like to hear your answers to the following questions:
- What could QNIS do nationally to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland?
- What could QNIS do to support you in your role in delivering high quality care in the community?
Email your ideas and tell us what you would like to see QNIS focus on, or
Tweet about your projects (@QNI_Scotland) and share what is working well.
And, of course, if you picked up a 125th Anniversary bag at our conference, or a colleague gave you one, then please Tweet or email your pictures to us (#125inthebag). Take your bag to work and show the world what you do! Or take your bag on holiday, or fill it with vegetables from your allotment, or your completed essay – free your imagination and we will choose a winning photo for our AGM later this year. Check out the photo gallery and see the pictures others have sent in. http://www.qnis.org.uk/125-celebration/
Please keep in touch and add your voice to promoting excellent community nursing practice in Scotland.
Clare Cable