Be Kind

 

 

Don't judge people

We have all been quick to judge and even laugh at people when they do or say something strange or behave in an odd way.  I am going to share two scenarios where my my staff were in fact struggling in life and it was only revealed when I took time to talk to them. 

It's not a pyjama party!

We were sitting in the office having handover from the night shift when a member of staff on the day shift walked in wearing her pyjamas and dressing gown.  Several staff started laughing and in fact the nurse was laughing herself.  We carried on with handover and then the nurse went to get changed into her uniform.  This nurse had been behaving a bit odd for a while and was a bit of a hot topic amongst staff.  This behaviour didnt help the gossip and so as her manager I took the opportunity to speak to her.

The nurse said that she had slept in and thought it didn't matter that she came in her pyjamas because she had to get changed anyway.  She became upset and opened up to me and explained that she had been feeling very anxious recently and was going through a difficult time at home.  She was on anti-depressants and being seen by her GP.  I felt bad that I hadn't known she was struggling but she said she was trying to work through things herself.  It turned out that she was deliberately saying and doing random things to get attention, it was her way of reaching out to let people know she was struggling.  This is in fact really sad that it took so long for me or anyone else to check if she was okay.  After all this was a senior nurse who had been well respected by the team.

It would seem that people turned their back on this nurse and she then became a bit of a laughing stock and known for her odd behaviours.

A little unkempt

She was the model nurse in the eyes of her patients and families.  She was amazing and gave exceptional patient care, what more could you ask for as a manager from your staff!

This same nurse was a bit unkempt and her time keeping was not the best.  Staff would moan about her and say she was letting the team down.  In my opinion this nurse did not fit in well with the team as they were all much younger and were very much proud of their looks etc.  The team would constantly complain about the nurse and there was an atmosphere on the ward which on one occasion was picked up by a family.  I brought the team together for a catch up and explained that the family had picked up on the atmosphere which was totally unacceptable.  I had to come down hard on the team and tell them to respect each other and that I would not tolerate patient experience being affected by an atmosphere.  

I spoke to the nurse seperately and it was then that she divulged that she was dependant on alcohol and had recently joined AA but was struggling.  I was shocked at this but everything now seemed to make sense.  She had hidden this well and again was trying to manage this on her own.  Obviously this was a serious issue which I had to escalate to my manager, HR and occupational health.  We put a support programme in place and I had daily check-ins with the nurse.  She said it was like a weight had been lifted and she felt a real sense of relief.

These two scenarios happened many years ago and taught me that as a manager you really do need to check in with all your staff especially when you notice someone is behaving out of character.  

I am a real advocate for checking in on staff now and will not tolerate gossiping but instead insist that people check in with each other.  We never know what is going on in people's lives and I firmly believe that as a manager and colleague we need to look out for each other and more importantly BE KIND!     

 

 

Tracheostomy Nursing Care

 

Emergency Tracheostomy Scenarios

 

 

I first started looking after patients with trachys when I was a 3rd year student nurse and it is something I have always enjoyed.  I find it satisfying when you clear the patient's secretions...yes I know a lot of nurses hate it!

I always used to think it was amazing that a nurse was responsible for maintaining a patient's airway with an artificial tube and yet the patient was not in ICU but on a main ward.  I found it rewarding and in my opinion it felt like real nursing care.

I am going to talk about 3 scenarios which have stood out to me and highlight my reflections from each.

 

My First Trachy Change

My first trachy change was when I was a newly qualified nurse and it was on an 18 month old girl.  I always thrive on new opportunities and felt confident to change the trachy.  It was a planned change and I was prepared, or so I thought.  I changed the tube and the nurse who was supervising me suddenly shouted "dont forget to take the introducer out".  I was shocked at this as I had only just inserted the new trachy and was just about to take the introducer out.  I was really annoyed because I felt like she could have made me panic.  Luckily I am a calm person and continued with the procedure.  The nurse then told me she was a bit nervous supervising me as I was junior and that she did feel there was a bit of a delay in my removing the introducer.  I am not sure there was a delay but I took her word for it.

 

Reflection

I reflected on this incident and vowed that even though it is not in my nature to cause panic, I would never do what that nurse did to me.  After all, behaviours like this can affect a person and put them off looking after trachys or any other nursing procedures. Fortunately I wasn't phased and continued to look after patients with trachys throughout my nursing career.

 

Blocked Trachy

I was looking after a 4 year old boy who was in fact the first trachy I had looked after as a student nurse.  He had a complex health condition and had been admitted at 3 months old with a new trachy.

On this occasion I was at his bedside and could hear and see that his trachy was blocked.    I had the emergency bag at the bed side and was getting prepared to do an emergency change when help arrived.  I pulled the crash bell and waited for what seemed like an eternity for someone to turn up.  Finally a 3rd year student nurse arrived and took one look at the patient and panicked.  I told her to go and find a nurse or doctor and let them know that we would probably need to do an emergency tube change.  The poor student nurse was flapping but did go and get help by which time the child had coughed and I had cleared some secretions.  We decided that although I had been able to clear a lot of secretions it would be best to still change the tube.  We proceeded to change the tube and the child was fine.

I spoke to the student nurse after the scenario and she said she was in a panic and scared.  I reassured her that she was helpful and in fact played a key role in the scenario.  She had given a good handover to the doctor and had returned to help if she could.  

If we relate this scenario to my first trachy change and I had shouted at the student nurse she may have been put off ever running to a crash bell.  

 

Reflection

It is really important to support each other in times of emergency situations and remember to be civil even if you feel stressed or scared yourself.  I took the time to make sure the student felt supported and reassured her that she had done a good job.  We also talked about her learning and development for dealing with similar situations in the future.

New Tracheostomy

My final scenario I want to talk about involves a 15 year old boy with complex health needs.  This patient had a normal airway and needed suctioning at times to clear secretions. 

I was at the nurses station when the boy's mother called me into his cubicle as she felt something wasn't right and she thought he wasn't breathing.  I took one look and could see that he had desaturated and was definitely not breathing.  I asked the mum to pull the crash bell and to clear space around the bed.  Meanwhile I got the bag-valve-mask and started giving respiratory support.  It wasn't long before another nurse and doctor arrived and I handed over.  The doctor requested an emergency crash call be put out and soon the resus and outreach teams arrived.

I stepped back from the boy and looked after the mum who was clearly distressed.  We could both hear conversations about whether he would need a trachy.  I explained the best I could to the mum and we waited for the ENT team to arrive.  It seemed like a long time before the decision was made to perform an emergency trachy there and then.  I remember we seemed to be there for hours and all the time I was reassuring the mum and explaining things as they happened.  I am no expert so my explanations were very brief and in simple terms as I new the ENT consultant and other experts would explain everything after.

Fortunately the procedure went well and the boy went off to theatre and then ICU.  He recovered well and was discharged after a few weeks.  I continued to look after the boy over the next few years and felt a real bond with him and his parents.  He used to make me laugh when he knew he needed suction and would say "suction Netty!" in a husky voice.

 

Reflection

This scenario is a bit of a blur to me and I wished I had taken the time to get a debrief and fully understand what had happened and why the decision was made for a trachy.  I wished I had more involvement in his treatment during the emergency as this would have enabled me to understand the situation more.  It is not like me to not be more involved as I do tend to push myself into situations.  Maybe I could sense the enormity of what was happening and felt my place should be with the mum.  I do feel I played an important role because the mum had to be looked after and her son was in safe hands.  I regret not asking more questions following this emergency and I have since made sure that I reflect on all scenarios and where necessary will ask for a debrief or someone to at least explain what had happened. 

I carried on looking after patients with trachys for many years and the patients have been a variety of ages and conditions.  I have looked after one patient who was 3 months when she was first admitted and stayed with us for 3 and a half years before discharge.  This girl is now 18 years old and was successfully decanulated. 

When I first started looking after patients with trachys there were not many of them and they were deemed as higher level nursing care.  We would have the odd 1 or 2 patients with trachys whilst on the ward but by the time I left the ward it was not uncommon to have maybe 2 or 3 on the ward at a time.  

 

Trachy's are a lot more common now and the outcomes are far better than they used to be.  In my opininion this is due to the rapid advaces in health care.  What are your thoughts?

 

Take a look at my video!

 

 

 

 

Are we too quick to label parents?

We have all looked after patients where we feel that relatives can be very demanding.  

This is a story about a mum and daughter that I looked after on the ward several years ago.  I will call the mum Beth and the daughter Zara.

Zara was a 6 year old girl with complex health needs who was frequently admitted to the ward with seizures.  We knew the family well and due to her behaviours at times, Beth was soon labelled as "difficult".  She placed several demands on nurses and doctors and her behaviour  was bordering on the aggressive side.  Beth was devoted to Zara and would be by her side on every admission.  It was difficult to get Beth to leave the hospital and she would often say to me, she had to be by her side because she was Zara's voice.

Zara was sometimes very sick when she came to hospital and it was difficult to cannulate her at times.  I remember one time when the doctors really struggled and Beth was furious.  She started shouting at me to get a particular consultant who had managed to cannulate Zara first time on her previous admission.  I explained that the consultant was not around and there were doctors on the ward already who would be treating Zara.  Beth was not happy with this and kept demanding I get the consultant.  Luckily the ward doctors did manage to cannulate Zara and Beth eventually calmed down. This incident was not isolated and Beth would often request that only certain staff look after Zara.  She certainly wasn't afraid to speak out. 

Sadly Beth passed away a few years ago which was devastating to hear.  I had spent many shifts looking after Zara and I really got to know Beth well.  She would tell me her hopes and fears.  She would tell me how scared she was that if something happened to her who would look out for Zara.  The love she had for Zara was profound and that's what made it so hard to hear of her passing.  The way in which Beth advocated for Zara has stuck with me throughout my nursing career and it is something that I have always done for my patients.  Whilst I never agreed with Beth's behaviour, I did admire her strength and determination and the love she had for Zara.

You could argue that Beth was advocating for Zara and only had her best interests at heart.  Did Beth deserve to be labelled?  Could Beth have advocated in a more calm manner?

Nurses will come across many situations like this and will indeed start labelling parents when they display behaviours like Beth's.  Parents are vulnerable when their children are admitted to the ward as they feel they have no control over their children's condition and illness.  After all they are the ones that usually protect and keep their children safe.  This vulnerability can often be chanelled as fear which can lead to aggressive behaviours. Parents need to advocate for their children and in the case of Zara, Beth was her only voice and therefore she made demands on staff to get the best outcome for Zara.  It is difficult when faced with these behaviours as clearly nurses want the best outcome for patients too.  When parents are shouting it can be very distracting and sometimes cause panic amongst staff, we need the parents to calm down.

It is unacceptable for parents or relatives to shout at staff and make demands on them no matter what the situation is and therefore we need to set boundaries.  We need to foster open and honest communication and build a trusting relationship showing empathy and compassion.  Let's understand what is driving these behaviours and what we can do to support the parents.  However, we do need parents to also understand that nurses will not tolerate any form of aggressive behaviour.  Parents can still advocate for their children in a calm and civil manner.

Do you think Beth deserved to be labelled?

Feel free to leave a comment.

 

Drug Errors - Every Nurse's Worst Nightmare

So, You  Made A Drug Error!

It's no real surprise that drug errors happen in the hospital setting.  Wards are such hectic and noisy environments which bring with it many distractions! 

Picture this...

You go into the treatment room to prep your medication, you are just getting the drug out the cupboard and you can hear your patient's monitor alarming.  You know that someone else will deal with it so you carry on.  Next thing your pager goes off and someone starts talking to you.  You carry on and start drawing up your meds and then the doctor rushes in to tell you there is an emergency.  Carrying on, you finish your drug prep and then give it to your patient.

 

Wait a minute...you have just given the wrong dose!

 

Is it any wonder!  You had 4 distractions whilst prepping the medication!

 

 

 

There are of course drug errors that can happen for a number of reasons which are not due to distractions.

 

I have made 2 drug errors in my nursing career which should never have happened.  I made my first drug error when I was 10 months NQN.  It was for a patient with complex health needs who I had been looking after for several months.  I knew the patient well and knew the drug chart like the back of my hand.  On this particular morning I was on auto pilot and drew up all the meds and gave them.  To my horror I had given one drug 4 hours early.  The drug chart had been changed the previous evening.  Nobody handed this over to me, but I knew it was my responsibility.  In this scenario I was complacent and it taught me to always check the drug charts properly on each shift and even during your shift.  Fortunately the patient came to no harm.

 

This incident highlights the importance of checking the drug prescription carefully for each med you are about to give.  It also hightlights the importance of a detailed hand over between shifts.  It is both nurses responsibibily, i.e. the nurse handing over should go through the drug chart and the nurse receiving hand over should request this. 

 

My second drug error involved me being second checker for IVAB.  We had given the drug TDS instead of BD.  We were interupted whilst drawing up the medication, however this was not the cause of the error.  We had both been careless and clearly not checked the frequency of the drug.  We were lucky that the patient came to no harm.

I developed a passion for patient safety and in particular safe drug administration.  The ward I worked on was a very busy general paediatric ward with a high turn over of patients.  We had drugs at the back of the nurses station and it was not uncommon for us to prep and draw them up there.  I made it my mission to improve practice and did the following -

• Moved all drugs to the treatment room
• Had a designated prescribing desk for doctors at the nurses station (although they didn't always use it!)
• A simple do not disturb sign was put on the treatment room door
• Nurses wore a red apron whilst prepping and administering drugs
• Nurses were encouraged to ignore anyone who came into the treatment room 
• Displayed poster with 6Rs (I know there are now 10Rs!)
  
• Displayed ward performance with drug errors - this acted as a visual prompt and gave encouragement to staff when numbers reduced
  

The number of drug errors did reduce but it is like any other target where it would fluctuate.

As a manager I always supported staff who made drug errors and ensured they reflected on the incident.  Learning was shared with the team and we definitely had a no blame culture on the ward.  It is important to support and understand why and how the error happened.

My message is simple! 

 

If you make a drug error please reflect on it and identify any learning.  Make sure you are always focussed and free from distractions, don't become complacement like I did!

Check out my YouTube Video

 

WARD MANAGER - IT'S A JUGGLING ACT!

It's all well and good when someone tells you to be organised, but how can you be when you are overwhelmed with so many jobs to do.  Picture this... you have just enjoyed your week away in the sun and come back to work where there are a few hundred emails waiting for you in your inbox,  staff pounce on you, you have actions from meetings and patients and families have been waiting to speak to you.  Oh and lets not forget the number of Datix that you have to action.  Where to begin!  

 

I remember when I first became a ward manager and was overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilites and duties I had.  Luckily I am a very organised person and love a list... well who doesn't love a list!  

 

I am going to share how I coped with being a new ward manager and how some of the techniques I used in the early days still work for me today.  I am only going to be able to scratch the surface but I hope there will be useful information to get you started.

 

5 TOP TIPS

1. Don't be afraid to delegate

There is no way you will be able to manage all the jobs of a ward manager on your own and therefore you will need to delegate.  By delegating jobs, you are empowering and developing your staff.  I had a team of 12 senior nurses on one of my wards and I split the ward staff into teams with 2 senior nurses leading each team.  They would be responsible for appraisals, one to one's and any other appropriate jobs.  Within the teams the senior nurses would support the junior nurses in undertaking audits, champion roles and link roles.  This in turn developed the junior staff.  I remember when I had recruited a junior sister to support me because it was a massive job managing a 44 bed ward and a team of over 65 staff.  My junior sister was amazing and embraced the role.  I handed over the job of roundings to her and she thrived, she felt important and was gaining confidence and respect from staff.  She also took the lead when we introduced the new Assistant Practitioner roles and all I can say is thank goodness for her because she literally took on every aspect of the project and I am pleased to say it was a huge success.  Remember though, when you delegate you are still accountable and need to offer guidance and support to the staff you have delegated to.  I also remember when I delegated another project to a senior nurse and gave her a lot of responsibility.  I could see that she needed a new challenge and I threw her in at the deep end!  Again this was a success because it freed up my time for other jobs whilst empowering the nurse.  She actually told me that I had "made her care about her job again".  

 

2. Email management

How on earth does someone manage so many emails!  I know when I first started as ward manager I was horrified at the number of emails... nobody prepared me for this!  As more junior nurses we are patient focussed and emails are always an, as and when we get a minute job.  We also never get many emails until we start to become more senior.

 

A good place to start which will reduce the number of emails in your inbox is to create rules for specific emails.  This is something I didn't actually learn about until a few years after becoming a manager.  It is something I still use now and cannot recommend enough.  We all get the usual email circulars hit our inbox on specific days and although you may think "I ignore those emails until I get time to read them" if you add these to other less important emails it can soon add up.  You will find that a lot of emails you receive are in fact for information only and it is these emails that deserve to go straight to the "information" folder to be read later.  In other words, create a rule for specific emails that do not require action and send them straight to that folder - please still remember to read them though!  Another really useful rule is to send all the Datix emails to a folder - THIS IS PURELY JUST TO DECLUTTER YOUR INBOX AND YOU MUST FACTOR IN URGENT TIME TO DEAL WITH THEM.  I used to set aside time every day so that it became a habit!

 

Whenever I return to work after time off I always filter my inbox which helps manage them more quickly.  For example, I always filter to flagged important emails first - although technically with an out of office on there should not really be important emails waiting for you!  My next move is to flick between different filters.  I find the quickest way to reduce the emails is to filter to subject heading first.  There will always be a long email thread for some subjects and most of the time I find that if I go to the most recent email in the thread and quickly scroll down, I can see that this one email contains all the emails that are sitting below it in my inbox! Hit that delete button on all those other emails and you will soon work your way through that inbox.  I do also filter by person as well but this is normally if I have been dealing with something and been waiting a response.  

 

Of course some of you may be thinking how do  I create a rule, or make a folder and even how do I filter?  This is a large area and I am going to cover it in more detail in a later post and video.

3. Staff Support

Staff will want your time not just when you return from leave but at any time.  Show them that you are there for them but also let them know that you have a big workload to get through.  I used to find that when I arrived in the morning staff would be waiting for me and most of the time I hadn't even got changed into my uniform!  I would be thinking...let me at least get changed first!  

 

One thing I have learned, is that although sometimes staff will come to you with what you would deem as a trivial matter, to them it is important.  The biggest tip I have around staff support is to be there for them.  If you are busy just let them know you will be free in an hour or whenever, and then make sure you seek them out.  If you dont seek them out they will either keep badgering you or think you dont care about them.  I have to confess it did take me a long time to realise that sometimes staff just need to offload, cry, shout, reflect or just talk. 

 

One time I was working my way through Datix and a staff member came to the office looking  upset, I asked if they were okay and they started crying.  I thought something really bad had happened and stopped what I was doing and gave them a listening ear.  I could not believe it when they said that their dog had died that morning.  I am not an animal person and remember thinking "its just a dog" and then I quickly realised that actually it may just be a dog to me but it was her pet and she was so upset about it.  I did feel bad thinking like this but it is at that moment that I realised that what's important to staff should be important to me as the manager.  You want your staff to be supported and looked after because they will then work harder, work better and give good patient care, which is what we are all striving for.  

 

Basically what I am trying to say here, is that you must invest time in your staff because they are the people running your wards.

 

 

4. To do list 

Like I said, I love a list, I always feel a real sense of achievement as I cross through the list!  I find it useful reading through my list each morning and then prioritising each job, however throughout the day the list gets longer and by the end of the day my list looks like a lot of scribble. I usually rewrite my list again at the end of each day so it is clear and ready for the next day.  I prefer a handwritten list although many people will use an electronic list and it really is a case of whatever works for you.

 

People work on to do lists in very different ways and of course there is no right or wrong way.  I am now going to talk about what works for me.  Once you start working your way through the list it is important that you don't burden yourself with all the complicated lengthy jobs first, as you may feel like you are not achieving much.  I tend to start with a couple of priority jobs and then do some of the less urgent jobs that I know I can complete quickly.  It is tempting to complete all the quick jobs first but I found that if you do this you then struggle to motivate yourself to start on one of your bigger tasks.  I found myself saying "I will just quickly check my emails, or check the ward is okay", this was me procrastinating and putting off the obvious.  I found that if I quickly check on the ward and staff and let them know that I am going to be busy for the next hour or two and that my door will be closed, I was able to unburden the guilt of being shut away quietly.  I find that if you are honest with staff and maintain an open door policy then when you tell them you are busy, they respect this and will not disturb you.  Sounds obvious, but remember as a ward manager you also have to have visibilty and so it is a juggling act and you need to get the balance right.

5. Look after yourself

Don't try and be a martyr!  It is a big responsibility being ward manager and you are literally pulled in every direction.  Patients need you, staff need you, doctors need you, managers need you...literally everyone wants a piece of you!  You will be spread so thinly that you forget about yourself but guess who else needs you...your family and friends!

 

I used to go to work early, leave late, cover shifts, work a day and then night shift and also go in during the night.  I thought I had to be there to fix things all the time.  What I didnt realise was that I was burning myself out.  Nobody can sustain this level of comittment and that's why you have to bite the bullet and stick to your hours (unless an emergency has come up).  I remember thinking it falls to me as ward manager, I need to be "on call" 24/7 as I am accountable and responsible for the ward.  Remember you have a team of senior nurses who are more than capable of dealing with situations that arise.  That's why they are senior.  It comes back to delegating.  Upskill and empower your staff and they will look after the ward perfectly fine without you!

 

I could talk about the whole well-being and self-care stuff but I think we hear enough about this these days that it is embedded in us.  We know what we have to do and now just need to do it.

Like I said at the beginning, I can only scratch the surface on this topic but hopefully you have found this to be a good starting point.  A lot of the bits I have talked about are not just for new ward managers but also for experienced managers.

 

I hope you found this useful and although a lot of it is quite basic and "that's obvious", I firmly believe that sometimes the "obvious" stuff is what you either don't know or forget!

 

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any tips to share. 

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing Netty: A Nurse's Narrative

Hello I’m Netty and I have been a paediatric nurse for 23 years ever since I decided to do my nurse training when I was 30.  Throughout my journey, I have had many roles, but my favourite has been as nurse manager and leader.  This role is where I embraced the opportunities to support and coach my staff to develop themselves both personally and professionally. I want to share my experiences over the years and will talk about funny, sad, happy and stressful situations I have encountered.  I am going to be blunt and to the point throughout which I hope will make good reading.   

 

My posts wont follow any particular order and will just be written as I think of situations I have experienced over the years.

 

My goal? To give you valuable insights into nursing and offer support and guidance along the way.  

 

The first scenario I want to talk about is when I was newly qualified working on the paediatric ward.  The ward sister asked me to be named nurse to a 3 month old baby with complex health needs.  This essentially meant that I was the single point of contact for the MDT and would look after the baby every time I was on shift.  

The family consisted of mum, dad, granny and baby’s sister.  I loved being named nurse as it meant I built up a good rapport with the family and it gave me confidence in my first few months of being qualified.  The baby did not have a good prognosis but looking back I am not sure I really understood what this meant.  I spent hours with the family and taught mum how to draw up and administer medications ready for when she took baby home. After a couple of discharge planning meetings it was time for baby to go home.  This felt like a real achievement for us all.  On the day of discharge I walked down to the car with the family and waved goodbye as they set off home to enjoy their baby.

A couple of weeks later the baby was re-admitted following a respiratory arrest at home.  Baby came back to the ward and I carried on as his named nurse.  He started to recover and there were hopes for upcoming discharge, however he then had another respiratory arrest and sadly didn’t make it.  I was not on shift at the time and found out the next day.  I was devastated and felt I had failed the family by not being there for them.  A message was given to me by the ward sister that the family wanted me to go to the funeral.  This was not something I felt comfortable with, what about professional boundaries?  I was always taught that nurses need to follow the NMC code and maintain professionalism.  What if I cry?  Surely this wouldn’t be professional!  Eventually two  senior colleagues persuaded me to go with them.

We got to the funeral and suddenly the family came up to me and thrust me towards the open casket which I was horrified about.  Why did nobody tell me this is what it would be like?  I found this really upsetting and could feel tears in my eyes and I became quite nervous.  Looking back I am glad I attended as it was my goodbye to baby and family.  The family were grateful and saw me as an important part of their journey.

Last week I was walking down the corridor in the hospital and happened to look over at 4 people sitting on a bench.  The lady caught my eye and we stared for a couple of seconds and then she said my name!  I then immediately recognised her and she gave me a big hug and said how nice it was to see me.  23 years later and she still thanked me for my care to her baby and family.  I felt such warmth from her and it took me back to why I wanted to become a nurse in the first place.  I wanted to make a difference to peoples lives.  This encounter made me feel proud to be a nurse.

My advice to anyone who is named nurse to complex patients, is to stick with it and see it as a privilege to be part of the patient and family’s journey.  It is why we are all nurses, because we care.  It is tough being a nurse and can leave you in emotional turmoil.  I don’t think I broke any professional boundaries and have in fact been to a few patient’s funerals at the request of families, and looking back I see it as my final part of the patient’s story.  

 
Being named nurse opens up opportunities for networking which for me is essential in the nursing profession.  You will learn to be assertive and an advocate which are key skills for nurses.  

 
Since my first time as named nurse it is something I have done many times and I have also supported junior staff to become confident in this role.  It is an opportunity I would thoroughly recommend as it allows you to build confidence, credibility and more importantly you will demonstrate compassion and empathy.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and look forward to you joining me in future posts.