20.06.2012
Newcastle Hospitals welcome new Chief Nursing Officer for England at their 14th Nursing and Midwifery Conference
Nurses, senior management and representatives from the Council of Governors at Newcastle Hospitals were delighted to welcome England’s newly appointed Chief Nursing Officer, Jane Cummings, to its 14th Nursing and Midwifery Conference which took place at Northumbria University’s City East Campus on 19th June 2012.
‘Making it Better Together’ is an annual celebration of the amazing achievements of the Newcastle Hospitals' 4,530 strong nursing workforce based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Freeman Hospital, Campus for Ageing and Vitality and in our many Community Health settings. The day long event provides a fantastic opportunity to thank all our nursing and midwifery staff, community nurses and health visitors, for their continual hard work and in particular the Achievement Awards acknowledge their commitment to further improving the quality of care and patient experience we provide.
Jane Cummings was invited to be a keynote speaker at this year’s conference when she was the Chief Nurse for NHS North of England and has since been appointed to Chief Nurse Officer for England in March 2012. Mrs Cummings said “I was delighted to be invited to take part in this celebratory event and was determined that I would still come to Newcastle despite my new role and its many commitments.”
During her speech, Mrs Cummings explained how nurses and midwives were fundamental to the provision of high quality healthcare, touching people at every stage of their life and often when they are at their most vulnerable. She also spoke of her ‘Vision for Nursing’ for the future and how the breadth and depth of nursing roles provided amazing opportunities for the delivery of excellent care. She outlined the new quality framework for nursing and midwifery and health visiting that aims to support the provision of safe and effective patient care called ‘Energise for Excellence’ and the Nursing and Patient Services Director was delighted to note that the key strands referred to were very much in line with Newcastle’s own Nursing Strategy, ‘Proud of Nursing and Midwifery in Newcastle’.
One of Mrs Cumming’s key roles as CNO is to oversee quality improvements in patient safety and patient experience, an area in which the Trust already excels. She said “I know that Newcastle has a great reputation - a place where care is amongst the best in the country - and am delighted to see the results of the recent NHS Patient Experience Survey which places Newcastle as a key performing Trust in England. This is so important as it can be very difficult to measure levels of compassion and dignity.”
Mrs Cummings joined break out sessions during her day and was delighted to take part in the presentation of the Achievement Awards.
And the joint winners were the specialist nurse team in the Great North Children’s Hospital for their work to improve pain relief for children undergoing rheumatology procedures and the sexual health team for their young peoples drop in service.
Congratulations!
14th Annual Nursing and Midwifery Conference - 19th June 2012
This year’s event was inspired by the Trust’s growing commitment to provide seamless, fully integrated care for all our patients wherever possible and how this has accelerated at a staggering rate since the amalgamation with Newcastle’s community services in April of last year. Helen Lamont, Nursing & Patient Services Director, talked of how impressed she was by the hugely positive and enthusiastic approach of community based staff when they joined the Newcastle Hospitals and how they had wholly embraced opportunities presented by the new working arrangements to bring about improvements to patient care pathways. Areas where significant changes have already been made include our Continence Services, Tissue Viability and Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease (COPD).
Mrs Lamont described how the Trust’s ethos of working ‘Better Together’ has seen greater collaborative working with our many partners in primary and social care, allowing us to provide ever growing examples of shared care across Newcastle, focusing on the needs of the individual patient unhindered by organisational boundaries.
Mrs Lamont was delighted to report that the most recent NHS Patient Experience Report demonstrated that Newcastle Hospitals was the best performing acute teaching Trust in England for Patient Experience – clear evidence that we are doing well.
Mrs Lamont paid tribute to her team for their hard work towards producing such a diverse and innovative programme making these days such a success. She also gave special thanks to the Boards of Trustees for their most generous contributions, without which the day would not be such a success, and to the representatives from the Council of Governors who are so fully supportive of the professional, compassionate and leading edge approach displayed by all our nursing staff. In particular she thanked all nurses and midwives acaross the Trust for the efforts they make each day to ensure that patients experience 'Healthcare at its very best - with a personal touch'.
Notes to Editors:
Jane Cummings is the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for the NHS Commissioning Board Authority. In this role, she is the professional lead for nurses and midwives in England and she will oversee quality improvements in patient safety and patient experience.
Jane worked as a nurse for many years specialising in emergency care before moving into general management. She has held a wide variety of clinical and managerial roles including Director of Commissioning, Director of Nursing and Deputy Chief Executive. Jane was the nursing advisor for emergency care in the CNO’s office before becoming the national lead for emergency care in February 2004. This involved working closely with clinical colleagues and ministers to agree the 98% operational standard and subsequently improve the waiting time experienced by patients in emergency care. Jane also worked with the Royal College of Nursing to develop the role of nurses and improve the experience and care of patients.
Jane moved to NHS North West in November 2007 where she had executive responsibility for the professional leadership of nursing, quality, performance, QIPP and commissioning. Jane was appointed as the Chief Nurse for the North of England SHA Cluster in October 2011. Jane is the national lead for the Energise for Excellence (E4E) programme, which provides a coherent framework to mobilise nursing staff to improve quality and reduce costs. She is also the SRO for the Clinical Leader’s Network in the North of England, the national nursing lead and a member of the national steering group, and has recently taken up the post of Chief Nursing Officer.
Jane is a trustee of the Over the Wall Children’s Charity www.otw.org.uk and also volunteers as a nurse at the children’s camps.
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Newcastle Hospitals is one of the most successful acute teaching NHS Trusts in the country offering more nationally accredited specialist services than any other group of hospitals in the UK. Our hospitals have over 1,800 beds and we manage over one million patient ‘engagements’ every year.
The Trust has long established credentials in providing innovative, high standard healthcare, including community services and primary care. Yet despite our size, complexity and national position we remain committed to the healthcare needs of local people.
With a staff base of around 13,500, (4,530 of whom are qualified nurses, midwives and health visitors) the Newcastle Hospitals is one of the region’s major employers and we have a long-standing reputation for high quality clinical care with our staff’s commitment to excellence reflected in our consistent performance at the highest level. This year, we were delighted to be awarded a Top 40 Hospital rating for the 12th successive year - one of only five trusts in the country to achieve this.
