Public Health, Mental Health and Nursing Power in Partnership - presentation at Faculty of Public Health annual conference 2016

1. Public Health, Mental Health & Nursing
Power in Partnership
JP Nolan, Head of Nursing Practice, Royal College of Nursing June 2016
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2. The RCN – 100 years of Practice
• 435,000 members, the largest Royal College.
• Nursing Department leading on practice and
education.
• 36 Specialist Forums, Including Public Heath and
Mental Health. MH being the largest Forum at the
RCN with over 10,000 members.
• 24/7 advice line for members on clinical,
professional, legal and employment issues.
• The largest nursing library in Europe, which will
hold a Public Health Exhibition this autumn.
• A range of services including counselling, legal,
immigration and careers advice.

3. Public Health Nursing
• Our members are involved in all areas of
public health.
• Heavily involved in service planning,
governance and clinical effectiveness.
• Highly knowledgeable in lifestyle, family
and community intervention.
• Nurses are well placed to be leaders
within communities on holistic public
health agendas.
• A shortage of nurses and education
funding are significant problems.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/all-our-health-
about-the-framework/all-our-health-about-the-framework

4. The current workforce, Public and Mental Health
• Generalist, specialist and advanced practice
all play a part – as do support roles.
• While entry to the register requires BSc level
education specialist practice requires post
graduate study and Advanced Practice
requires Masters level education.
• Currently access to education in PH and MH
is a challenge for many.
• All nurses and midwives are required to be
PH and MH literate.

5. Mental Health Then and Now

6. Mental Health the current picture
• Lord Crisp’s report “Old Problems, New Solutions”.
• Modern recovery focused inpatient care standards are
required. Beds and money are not the answer.
• 7 days services with and integrated mental and physical
health approach.
• Greater provision for the most vulnerable in society, tackling
health inequality.
• This the RCN believe should be operationalised with a strong
public health approach.
• There is a current review of undergraduate nurse education
which an opportunity to modernise.

7. Enables of partnership working
• Nurses are the largest healthcare workforce with great
potential to influence quality and safety.
• We combine traditional nursing values of advocacy with
new clinical and non-clinical skills.
• Often we have more contact time with patients and the
public than other professions, and so if facilitated to -
can make every contact count.
• Many examples show high value interagency working
between nurses, teachers, police forces and local
government in communities and schools.

8. Barriers to partnership working
Nurses Need to Clean up Their Act.
Old fashioned nurses would mop,
wipe and make life comfortable.
Libby Purvers – Daily Telegraph, UK.

9. Summary
• Nurses, both as experts in public health and as generalists in physical or mental heath care are well placed
to incorporate preventive and risk modifying approaches in service design and delivery.
• There is strong, reliable, high quality evidence that specialist and advanced nurses are good for patients
and good for organisations – but evidence alone has not been enough to secure the investment needed to
date.
• Nurses are population focused and work particular well in the interagency space between health, Local
government, criminal justice and education.
• The RCN are committed to working in partnership with FPH and others to release the shared capital of all
agencies and professions to improve the health of our population.