The 3 L's: Listening Learning and Leading

The Steering committee get together every year and review all the activity in the past 12 months, whilst planning for the next year and beyond. What a year its been with so much to report and look forward to! Central to our Strategy is our philosophy of Listening, Learning and Leading. These three vital elements underpin all that we do and keep us focused in providing an informative, evidence based and recognised voice for members working within GI Nursing.

Preparing for the Annual Strategy Day is a very exciting time and leads me to reflect on my first year as Chair. I think back to my predecessors, firstly Isobel Mason and then most recently Fiona Hibberts. I started my review of the year reflecting on their inspirational influence & leadership. In the Forum blog post from December 2021 'Ending well', Fiona reflected on the great opportunities that GI Nursing offers and how we must take them when we can. How wonderful it is then that both were recognised by the RCN, Isobel as a Fellow of the RCN, and Fi at Congress this year with the Award of Merit. As a committee we were glad to be there to celebrate those momentous achievements.

Since my time on the Steering Committee to the present, we have focused on 3 central elements in our strategy. 3 Ls: Listening, Learning and Leading. Each year the Committee convenes to review Forum Activity. We examine what we have done, what we are doing and finally of what we are dreaming. As I write this, despite the challenges of the last two years during the pandemic, it is amazing to see how much we have achieved. There have been some great collaborations and events, with much more to come.

Congress is an important part of the Forum calendar. This is a great opportunity to work with colleagues, represent the members and learn about the work of the College as a whole. I would encourage all our members to get involved and attend. Please do think about applying as a voting member. This year we ran two learning and wellbeing events in Glasgow. The first was Writing for Publication: bringing together HCA's, students and registered nurses, to talk about putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). Fi also presented her research with us in a workshop on Psychological Safety within the workplace. Listening to the delegates was inspiring and we learned much about what is needed to support people in practice via these workshops.

Collaboration is especially important  to this Forum, and we strive to work closely with GI specialist networks and organisations. Crohn's and Colitis UK partnered with the RCN in May this year to develop the very first advanced level nursing practice credentialing for a speciality: recognising competence across the pillars of advanced practice. With our colleagues in the IBD network, there is now in press the IBD Framework for Professional Practice – representing practice across the four UK nations. We have worked with Bowel Cancer UK this year exploring nurses’ awareness of community support groups and the need for this provision. The Committee are writing regularly, and have published articles on student nursing, maximising Gastro placement opportunities, and on coaching in practice. The Forum Committee are also working closely with the journal Gastrointestinal Nursing and we now have a regular column in the journal. The latest column in November by Rebekah Hill explores the rising rates of liver cancer and the launch of Liver Cancer UK in response.

Social media has been very active this year. As we all work in new and often remote ways, listening to what members have to say and request is very important, and is often via this medium. Nurses have approached the committee for advice and support on all manner of things from career planning, developing protocols & business cases, to standards for practice and getting support to publish their work/disseminate new evidence. Much of our work is disseminated via Twitter and Facebook and both are thriving platforms.

RCN Forum activity is a vital part of the College and collaborative cross forum working is always encouraged. There are 35 RCN Forums offering specialist support for practice across the UK. The RCN GI Forum is active, responsive, and committed to working with other forums, and collaboration in this way will form a major part of our year ahead. This is part of the leading element of our forum activity to help us influence and raise the profile of GI Nursing. We are privileged to represent our forum members, to champion GI Nursing and we will continue to listen, learn and lead in doing so. 

I wish you well for all that 2023 brings, and I look forward to the year ahead  - please consider yourself invited to get involved!