Starting next week, I am going to be delivering CNO monthly briefing sessions in the form of presentations to staff across both The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust (WHT).
As Chief Nursing Officer, I feel it’s really important to be visible, accessible and to communicate with as many staff as I can but also in the clearest way possible. Only then can we really know what everyone’s views are and deliver on those objectives.
Each session will last for an hour and I will be using the opportunity to talk to small groups of nurses addressing different issues affecting nursing in our two organisations, as well as nursing on a wider scale.
I realise staff are extremely busy, but it’s also important to take your breaks and that’s why – for the first one and hopefully for all sessions – a live link is available for colleagues who are unable to attend in person to join in remotely.
In recent weeks I have increased my engagement with staff by introducing my ‘Tea with Ann-Marie’ hour-long drop-in sessions with staff at Costa Coffee in Walsall Manor Hospital every Tuesday from 12 noon to 1pm.
All staff are welcome to attend these informal sessions, and they have proved extremely popular and useful to me as staff have fed back to me their concerns, which I have been able to address, and hopefully reassure them.
The monthly presentations will be a more structured affair. Without giving too much away, the plan is for myself and the site Director of Nursing to update on nursing issues and future developments. I hope they will prove to be as popular as the Costa Coffee sessions.
Other topics I will be addressing at the first session are nursing and midwifery structure, nursing quality team and structure, infection prevention and control, education, patient voice, plus other important topics.
Each presentation will be held at both The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and also at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
There will also be chance to staff to ask me questions at the end of the session, and I am also hoping to have guests with me to speak.
The first presentation will take place at Walsall next Tuesday, April 12, from 2pm-3pm, in the Sister Dora, Lecture Theatre, Manor Learning and Conference Centre (MLCC). I will then deliver a similar presentation at RWT on Monday, April 25, from 12pm-1pm.
Please see a list of dates and times for all the presentations for the rest of 2022 across both Trusts below.
RWT
- Monday, April 25 12pm-1pm
- Wednesday, May 11 2pm-3pm
- Wednesday, June 29 2pm-3pm
- Wednesday, July 13 11.30am-12.30pm
- Wednesday, August 17 1pm-2pm
- Wednesday, September 14 11.30am-12.30pm
- Wednesday, October 12 2pm-3pm
- Wednesday, November 16 2pm-3pm
- Wednesday, December 14 2pm-3pm
All to be held in the Lecture Theatre, Wolverhampton Medical Institute (WMI), RWT
WHT
- Tuesday, April 12 2pm-3pm
- Tuesday, May 17 11.30am-12.30pm
- Tuesday, June 21 11.30am-12.30pm
- Tuesday, July 19 11.30am-12.30pm
- Tuesday, August 16 11.30am-12.30pm
- Tuesday, September 20 11.30am-12.30pm
- Tuesday, October 18 11.30am- 12.30pm
- Tuesday, November 15 11.30am-12.30pm
- Tuesday, December 20 11.30am-12.30pm
All to be held in the Sister Dora, Lecture Theatre, Manor Learning and Conference Centre (MLCC), WHT.
I look forward to speaking to my nursing colleagues in the very near future!
Take care,
Ann-Marie