The Prime Minister's Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery is building on the existing work identified in Lord Darzi's report High Quality Care for All and is considering how nurses can further improve safety, champion high quality patient care and give nurses and midwives more freedom to manage, commission and run their own services. All branches of nursing and midwifery are being considered including health visitors, mental health and learning disability nurses and paediatric nurses.
As part of this consultation exercise, the commission sought views on the following key questions:
1. What are the knowledge, skills and attributes of your ‘ideal’ nurse or midwife?
2. What would you like to see nurses and midwives doing more of and/or doing differently in the future – whether in people’s own homes, in the community or in hospital?
3. What might be preventing nurses and midwives from doing this now?
In addition to our response to the specific questions we also asked the Commission to ensure that the work being undertaken to focus on the profession and values is intrinsically linked to the reviews and work already being undertaken. In particular, the review of nursing education, Modernising Nursing Careers, Midwifery 2020 and the Next Stage Review project work.
NHS Employers also emphasised the need to ensure that any recommendations do not disadvantage the employer from creating a more flexible multi-disciplinary workforce, whilst aiding recruitment and retention.
Download a copy of the covering letter sent by NHS Employers and our detailed comments on the questions raised by the Commission.
More information on the commission's work programme can be found on the commission’s website.