Follow your compassion: the lived experience of newly registered nurses and midwives across the UK

Collaboration: RCN Mental Health Forum

The session will explore the findings of the Follow Your Compassion project which captured the experiences of newly registered nurses and midwives through reflections, vlogs (video blogs), photography and the spoken word, and compare these with the perceptions of organisational managers. 

A collaboration between The King’s Fund and the RCN Foundation, this project followed up on The Courage of Compassion (2020), a report from The King’s Fund, funded by the RCN Foundation, which advocated for the use of compassionate leadership to improve the mental health and wellbeing of nurses and midwives. The issue of newly registered nurses and midwives leaving the professions within the first 3 years post-registration is of serious concern from a workforce planning and safety perspective.

Follow Your Compassion adopted a UK-wide approach with participants from all fields of nursing and midwifery. 
Delegates will have access to discussion and debate about why this group is choosing to leave so early into their career and what interventions could be made to support them as they transition from student to registered nurse.

The session is relevant to all delegates.