Public Health, Mental Health & Nursing Power in Partnership

JP Nolan, Head of Nursing Practice, Royal College of Nursing June 2016

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The RCN – 100 years of Practice • 435,000 members, the largest Royal College.• Nursing Department leading on practice and education. • 36 Specialist Forums, Including Public Heath and

Mental Health. MH being the largest Forum at the RCN with over 10,000 members.

• 24/7 advice line for members on clinical, professional, legal and employment issues.

• The largest nursing library in Europe, which will hold a Public Health Exhibition this autumn.

• A range of services including counselling, legal, immigration and careers advice.

Public Health Nursing • Our members are involved in all areas of

public health.• Heavily involved in service planning,

governance and clinical effectiveness. • Highly knowledgeable in lifestyle, family

and community intervention.• Nurses are well placed to be leaders within

communities on holistic public health agendas.

• A shortage of nurses and education funding are significant problems.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/all-our-health-about-the-framework/all-our-health-about-the-framework

The current workforce, Public and Mental Health

• Generalist, specialist and advanced practice all play a part – as do support roles.

• While entry to the register requires BSc level education specialist practice requires post graduate study and Advanced Practice requires Masters level education.

• Currently access to education in PH and MH is a challenge for many.

• All nurses and midwives are required to be PH and MH literate.

Mental Health Then and Now

Mental Health the current picture • Lord Crisp’s report “Old Problems, New Solutions”.• Modern recovery focused inpatient care standards are required. Beds

and money are not the answer. • 7 days services with and integrated mental and physical health

approach. • Greater provision for the most vulnerable in society, tackling health

inequality. • This the RCN believe should be operationalised with a strong public

health approach. • There is a current review of undergraduate nurse education which an

opportunity to modernise.

Enables of partnership working• Nurses are the largest healthcare workforce with great

potential to influence quality and safety.• We combine traditional nursing values of advocacy with

new clinical and non-clinical skills.• Often we have more contact time with patients and the

public than other professions, and so if facilitated to - can make every contact count.

• Many examples show high value interagency working between nurses, teachers, police forces and local government in communities and schools.

Barriers to partnership working

Nurses Need to Clean up Their Act.

Old fashioned nurses would mop, wipe and make life comfortable.

Libby Purvers – Daily Telegraph, UK.

Summary • Nurses, both as experts in public health and as generalists in physical or mental heath care are well placed

to incorporate preventive and risk modifying approaches in service design and delivery. • There is strong, reliable, high quality evidence that specialist and advanced nurses are good for patients

and good for organisations – but evidence alone has not been enough to secure the investment needed to date.

• Nurses are population focused and work particular well in the interagency space between health, Local government, criminal justice and education.

• The RCN are committed to working in partnership with FPH and others to release the shared capital of all agencies and professions to improve the health of our population.