Leadership is one of the important characteristics identified for nurses. We are taught about leadership in nursing education programmes (many!) and are encouraged to think and act like leaders. We are given talks on leadership and management theories, differences between a leader and a manager and styles of effective leadership. That teaching and learning does not stop with nursing education programmes, as we often find ourselves participating in various leadership courses and programmes to improve our leadership and to become a ‘voice to lead’ as International Council of Nurses calls it. Covid19 has placed  nursing and healthcare professionals at the forefront and their roles are highlighted and praised. We have been identified as ‘heroes ...

As we find ourselves in a world where we hashtag, Instagram ,DM, tweet, post, and liking posts:We want to consider the role of social media and your own Continuous Professional Development and preparing for revalidation.Nursing in the 21st Century means that there is a variety of ways that we can all learn from each other and one way is social media.  The NMC has acknowledged social media and within their social media Guidance they have advised that we may be able to incorporate our online activity into our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours of revalidation. In terms of revalidation and the CPD element of this process, you must have undertaken 35 hours o CPD relevant to your scope of practice as a Nursing Associate in the three ...

What makes conversations difficult? For many healthcare professionals it's conversations about dying and death but what about the newly diagnosed diabetic who was afraid of hospitals, and very afraid of needles or how about enabling conversations with loved ones over video calls during the Covid19 pandemic or perhaps supporting colleagues in time of need? Difficult conversations can come in all shapes and sizes.  Do we always apply the same amount of gravitas to different types of difficult conversations and do we recognise them as such? How well do we, as nurses, prepare to do it? And how often do we reflect on and acknowledge the impact the difficult conversations we have?  As nurses we often come across ethical problems or have to tell p ...

How we portray ourselves online is becoming more and more important as we spend increasing amounts of time online engaging with others in spaces where we are on view to the world. During the Covid19 pandemic this has become all the more apparent with nurses (and indeed the wider public) taking to social media to connect with the wider world.  Whilst most nurses connect and share online in responsible and professional ways there are those who do not and recent unprofessional TikTok videos shared by nurses have highlighted the need to remind all nurses that social media is a public space and professionalism is something that we always need to bear in mind.  The NMC social media guidance is clear on what is expected of nurses who use social me ...