Bursting the bubble

“Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses … we must be learning all of our lives,”  Florence Nightingale, 1880s.

Nursing education is sometimes seen as belonging to universities and students but education is central to all nurses, all bands, all areas of nursing. Keeping up with the evidence, incorporating new equipment, new practices, responding to the ever changing pressures on resources and staff mean we are all learning something, all of the time, whether we realise that or not.  

In clinical areas it is easy to lose sight of this ongoing learning. Too many days are about doing the best we can with what we have. We find ourselves existing in a shift to shift bubble which can lead to feeling disempowered, disenfranchised and isolated from everything outside our area. Bursting that bubble can only be done by stepping outside and reconnecting with nursing and nurses in a wider sense, challenging as that can be.   

I recently attended my first Education Forum conference and returned to work full of the passion and energy absorbed from the atmosphere.  Listening to people talk about their work was inspiring and has given me so many ideas. As an attendee there really was something for everyone, sessions on every aspect of nurse education from pre-registration to work-based learning.

For me the highlights were the passion of the keynote speakers and the sessions on the theme of ‘Evolving and innovative models of workforce training and education’, a subject very close to my heart.

50% of pre-registration learning takes place in practice and to do justice to our future nurses as well as ourselves, our colleagues and our service users we need ongoing, fully supported educational opportunities for all healthcare staff.

I spent 2 days watching sessions around Nursing Associates and Healthcare Support Workers as well as registered nurses, hearing about Men’s Mental Health and supporting Neurodivergent people, talking about the many ways learning has developed in a post-pandemic world with virtual learning experiences. If I had one complaint it was that no one person could possibly have seen it all, and I absolutely would have.

As a new member of the Forum Steering Committee, it was a privilege to also see behind the scenes. The amount of work that goes into a conference is immense and to be even a small part of that was as exhausting as it was energising.  I chaired sessions and a keynote speech for the first time, apparently hiding the trembling very well.

For those who had been working to make the conference a success for the year leading up to it, and for those in previous years, I thank them for their dedication and I look forward to playing my part during my time on the committee. I have already shared a significant amount of what I learned with my colleagues, with friends and it has prompted me to take my own ideas forward too.