The power of the nursing voice in the General Election

"Brilliant to meet prospective MPs face to face."

"I learned so much more about nursing tonight."

"So well chaired – we should do more of this."

"Excellent discussion - I wish we had more time."

This is just some of the feedback we received following the Brighton and Hove hustings held on Monday 24 June. We organised the evening for our nursing RCN members to share experiences and ask questions to our parliamentary candidates in our three seats (Hove and Portslade, Brighton Pavilion, and Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven). We invited all the candidates, and nine attended from across 6 parties (the Conservatives did not respond).
 
Members from the audience asked the candidates questions relating to corridor care, fair pay and the cost of living, the right to strike, challenges facing student nurses, and the lack of mental health service provision for children and adolescents in our city. Each candidate was given two minutes on the timer to respond, enabling a wide representation of political views.

The candidates were further challenged with responses from our members about their experiences of living and working in Sussex, particularly discussing the cost and contracts of rental accommodation, the channels of communication with MPs and the retention issues our workforce faces.
 
Using the RCN’s General Election Manifesto was extremely helpful, as a tool to reinforce our questions and discuss why the issues are important for nursing. For other members attending hustings in the future, we would strongly recommend using this as a framework for debate and to discuss with colleagues. We gave all the candidates a copy of this to take away, and members referred to it in their informal discussions at the close of the event.
 
RCN members embodied the behaviour described in the RCN Respect Charter by asking professional questions and listening to responses from the candidates. 

We would have liked to press the candidates further and challenge some of their responses around the socioeconomic determinants of health and illness. Whilst nurses know the strong evidence base demonstrating the harmful effects of poverty for growth, development and health, the MPs spent more time explaining how their changes could be costed – which perhaps distracted from the human experiences we wanted to share. There was some of the predictable word-jousting conflict between some candidates, and plenty of dignity from others.  

The evening was full of energy and engagement and closed with a summary of the current issues facing our safety critical profession and an invitation to keep the conversations going. We received requests from both members and candidates to hold more events enabling open conversations beyond the General Election.  

We are in no doubt that sharing our personal experiences of nursing in our own words is a powerful way to influence policy makers, and events like this enable us to deepen our own political awareness. Perhaps the most important outcome of the evening was the insight from a student who said: "I thought politics was broken and there was no point voting, but now I have completely changed my mind."