Top five points from Pat’s speech

Pat announced that the RCN will be creating a new Centre of Excellence Institute, offering extensive educational programmes and awarding degrees. In collaboration with universities, the RCN will develop its own professorships and fund PhD programmes, she said.  

In addition, Pat revealed that the RCN Group will launch a new portal bringing together 350 pieces of learning and guidance into one place for the first time this summer.

“For nursing to keep advancing, the true potential in every one of us must be reached,” Pat said.

“The RCN I lead will have professional development as a fundamental part of what it means to be a member – no matter your role or point in your career. 

“We will empower the nursing workforce and embed an education and learning culture within health care delivery,” she pledged. 

Pat used her speech to deliver a stark warning to employers. “Enough is enough,” she exclaimed. “We deserve better, we demand better.” 

She urged members to use the RCN’s Nursing Workforce Standards – launched last year as a national blueprint for excellent patient care – to hold employers to account when standards fall short. 

“Tell your employer. Again, and again and again,” Pat urged. “We’ve had enough. No more.

“If half a million of us escalate our concerns at the end of every shift. If every performance report highlights near misses, unsafe staffing levels, cancelled procedures, poor levels of recruitment and retention. Then that is a foundation stone.

“We want every health board in the UK to be talking about the staffing crisis in their organisation. We want them to be asking their executive teams what they can do about it.”

Referencing our newly released last shift survey report – which showed 8 out of 10 shifts were unsafely staffed – she demanded of politicians: “Do something about it.

“We’ve had enough, the patients and those we care for have had enough. We’re tired, fed up, demoralised, and some of us are leaving the profession because we’ve lost hope. Enough is enough.”

Governments around the UK will announce the next NHS pay awards any day now. On pay, Pat insisted that nursing staff shouldn’t be afraid to demand what they’re worth. 

“Never be embarrassed for asking to be paid decently and appropriately,” she said. “No matter where you work, your pay needs to rise. If you work in social care or for an independent provider, the very least you deserve is for your pay to match the same roles in the NHS. 

“When ministers make their announcements this summer, anything below the current level of inflation is another pay cut. Nursing is skilled work. It is safety critical work. But the salary doesn’t match that level of responsibility. 

“Ministers miss the point entirely when they say that it’s a choice between filling nursing jobs or paying proper wages. You only get the people to join and stay if they see that they’re being valued.”

Among her key messages, Pat was keen to address instances of poor workplace culture, insisting that all nursing staff be treated with dignity and respect. 

With regards bullying and harassment – which she described as “disgusting, intolerable and unacceptable”, she urged members to be kind and civil to each other.

“Be inspiring, be proud, be the role model you can be,” she said. 

Pat also addressed the need for workplaces to become more inclusive. “Nursing is a tapestry of all nationalities, beliefs, and cultures. And we celebrate that rich diversity. 

“Black, Asian, minority ethnic and female leaders are found more in our profession than many others. But there are simply not enough. Let’s promote equality of opportunity. That is how we become a force to be reckoned with. Doing nothing is not an option.”