Following the recent UK Government cabinet reshuffle, 6th September 2022,  by the incoming prime minister Liz Truss, a new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been appointed, with the appointment also taking the role of Deputy prime minister, namely Thérèse Coffey, previously Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2019.

Thérèse Coffey tweets as @theresecoffey and in her new role set out her priorities in her first tweet below:

I am honoured to be asked to serve as SoS for Health and Social Care. Patients are my top priority, as we focus on ABCD - ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists https://t.co/AIrIOfvkyn

— Thérèse Coffey #PutinMustFail (@theresecoffey) September 7, 2022

We all know there isn't a lot of room in a tweet and as the largest workforce provider of care one has to assume that nurses fall into the "care" part of Thérèse Coffey shared ABCD soundbite tweet above. 

The nursing workforce all around us is. as we know. extremely diverse in both our skills, experience, and roles, and even more so in how we are employed across health and social care, with the majority certainly in England employed within integrated care systems, explained here rather well by The Kings Fund.

For many of our experienced colleagues, they will have nurses through a few Governments and dozens or more Health Secretaries, even if you are just started out as a newly qualified nurse you'll have trained and nursed under the watch of at least four in the last 4 in the last 14 months. 

Given that the pressure on delivering care as nurses continues to mount, noting the pressures were quite considerable pre the pandemic, and the significant changes in the most senior role in the UK's health provision structure, let's take a look at our understanding of the role, impact and value of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as a role. 

We'll be exploring the subject, the role of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the role and not the incumbent person, via the following questions on the chat:

• Do you feel the role of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is/should be relevant to nurses?
• What impact should the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care role have on nursing?
• How could a Secretary of State for Health and Social Care be/reamin informed about nursing?
• Should nurses seek to influence the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care role?
• Should any cabinet member have direct skills related to their role, or are their advising councils enough?
• What's the most relevant nursing message now for a Secretary of State for Health and Social Care?

                                                                                                                                     

You can use this tweetchat for participatory CPD / Revalidation via #MyWe, here's a how-to guide, and the login link to #MyWe 

If you've not joined a tweetchat before here's how:

Using a hashtag (#) like #WeNurses allows us to use a Twitter feature that shows everyone the tweets that contain it, this allows us to chat with people that we don't follow, yet, enabling the ability for us to chat together on Twitter.

• To see the chat click (or search) for #wenurses on Twitter
• Look out for questions and others' responses that interest you
• To join in, add #WeNurses to your tweets

Regardless of your role, whether you are a mental health nurse or not, if you are passionate about our work then you are very welcome to join in.

Do join in, your views, ideas, and shared experience add real value to others on the chat.

Picture Credit: @10DowningStreet