Getting on with it

I am one of the newest of the RCN Fellows. I was awarded my fellowship last summer, having been nominated as ‘an ambassador for nursing’. I never dreamt that I ever would be made a Fellow because I assumed it was only for nurses at the top of their game… our professors, doctors and dames. I felt the same in 2012 when I received my letter from the Home Office inviting me to become a Member of the British Empire. I seriously thought it was a joke but of course it wasn’t, and I was thrilled.

I still can’t quite believe that I have these awards. I have always just done what I felt needed to be done. On my Twitter profile, @MrsBosanquet, it says ‘what ought to be done, can be done’. This was William Rathbone’s family motto. William Rathbone is the father of district nursing in the UK. I am a Queen’s Nurse and later held an influential role in public health and health protection policy so these words have guided me.

My involvement with the RCN started in 2006 when a colleague asked if I would be the health protection nurse rep on the Public Health Forum. I jumped at the chance and met some amazing RCN staff who have become long-term friends and colleagues. We just got on with it. Linda Bailey was the Forum Chair and I learned so much from her in-depth knowledge of the College and about how, as a Registered Nurse and Public Health Nurse, she broke through into public health and became a consultant with parity (albeit not financially) with her medical colleagues. I have been fortunate to meet other amazing colleagues since then and they are now my ‘go-to’ network. When I have a flurry of thoughts or a crazy idea, these are colleagues who will listen and challenge and help me to craft it into a meaningful narrative. There is always something that has to be done and my motto will continue to be ‘just get on with it’.

My concerns continue to focus on recruitment, retention and wellbeing in our nursing and midwifery workforce; our professional identity; our place in the world; and how we can take the lead to establish person-centred practice as the norm for nursing services globally. Right now, I feel really concerned about the exhaustion, loss, anger and hopelessness that many of my colleagues face in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and, even before that, the years of underinvestment in the UK nursing workforce.