Forgetting things

Last week saw our very first in person meeting of BEN Programme Registered Nurses! And what a meeting it was. I can only apologise that I have not put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) until now, but have to admit that I have been so busy ‘doing’ that I totally forgot! Sadly that was not the only thing I forgot – I also forgot to take a photograph….arrrggghhhh ! (if ever there was a facepalm moment this is it!) But despite me forgetting things the meeting was a huge success.

During the first part of the meeting we explored the power of blogs and blogging, and we were so excited to announce the setting up of our very own BEN Blog…..and …. tadaaaahhh …. CLICK HERE to access the blog.

We have shared the BEN story so far on the blog, so all of the blogs that have been written to date are now on there. The brilliant thing about the blog is the ability to comment, and we are not only encouraging the BEN Registered Nurses to comment and share but also opening that up wider to anyone! There was a great appetite in the room for blogging, and over the coming weeks we are looking forward to sharing all sorts of blog posts from the amazing BEN nurses.

We were also really fortunate to have Sam Sherrington (Head of Community Nursing at NHS England) who, through the wonder of technology, joined the meeting via a video link. Sam was truly inspirational, she talked about her own quality improvement project and left us with some top tips:

• Accept failure and move on
• Be prepared to drop stuff
• Be as objective as possible when it comes to measurement
• Try and control what you can

Sam also gave a brilliant overview of the national perspective and left the group with the thought that we all, as registered nurses, have a responsibility to share things wider and a challenge as to how we accelerate that! Following Sam’s presentation, the room lit up and everyone entered into a fantastic discussion about how we can share what Registered Nurses in social care do and how we can show the world how amazing we are.

Although I may have forgotten to take a photograph of the group (I absolutely promise I will do next time) and I may have forgotten to write this blog (until now), I will never forget the energy and enthusiasm in the room to really take the responsibility to share what social care nurses do seriously. I can’t wait until the next BEN Programme meeting when we will be exploring that further.