We must show How Nurses Count – but we need your help

Nurses working across primary and community care settings are innovators, influencers and highly skilled professionals.

We know your role is evolving and adapting, with increasing complexities and patient demand piling on the pressure, but we also know this often goes unrecognised and this must change now. More needs to be done to highlight your value and worth at the highest levels.

That’s why Nursing in Practice is running its How Nurses Count campaign – a movement to champion the profession, share best practice and innovation, and encourage learning from each other. But we need you – nurses across primary and community care – to help us spread the word about the vital work you are doing.

I was recently appointed acting editor at Nursing in Practice, having previously been deputy editor and news editor. Much of my career has been dedicated to writing about nurses and I want to channel my commitment and passion into really bringing to life our How Nurses Count campaign and show to all just how much nurses in primary and community care matter.

We are on the hunt for general practice nurses, advanced nurse practitioners, district nurses, community nurses, nurse partners, specialist nurses and more to share with us details about latest projects, clinics and initiatives they are running and leading. Through short interviews with our news team, we hope to collate a bank of evidence on the safety-critical and pioneering work undertaken by nurses outside hospital settings.

This evidence bank will act as a useful resource for nurses wanting to learn about cutting edge, successful initiatives and access practical tips on how to do something similar in their area.

But the campaign doesn’t stop there. While this is very much about nurses sharing and learning from one another, it’s also about making sure the voice of nurses in primary and community care are heard by those at the highest levels, including employers, policy makers and the government.

I’m often told that nurses struggle to shout about the work they do, so I want this campaign to be a platform for exactly that. We need nurses working in primary and community care to speak loudly and proudly about the difference they are making to patients, in their workplaces and to their colleagues.

As part of How Nurses Count, we are also keen to speak to other professionals – GPs, pharmacists, allied health professionals and their representatives – to hear about the impact nurses are making to their work too. So please make sure you share this campaign with your non-nursing colleagues as well.

If you would like to get involved by sharing your story and the difference you make, please contact me on [email protected]