RCN Critical care and flight nurse strategy day 2020

At the end of January the steering committee of the Critical Care and Flight Nurse forum set aside their technological devices and sat in the same room to each other face to face. The aim of this meeting was not to support digital detox, but actually to identify and agree on key objectives for the forum over the coming year. Our forum is special in that it is composed of two different nursing disciplines, which while naturally interlinked are also subject to their own individual issues for the forum to consider.

The members of the committee have a wide range of experience and hold diverse roles within critical care and flight nursing, from staff nurse to director of nursing, with most levels in between. We pride ourselves on staying in touch with the current, important issues that are facing our members.

Supporting nurse education is one of our key priorities for this year with planning already underway for our annual flight nurse study day in October. In addition we have recently launched a webinar series with the aim of providing accessible and relevant CPD. We have already tackled the subject of professional indemnity, with future subjects planned to include insights into the role of the Nurse Critical Care Practitioner, Critical Care outreach services and career advice for those nurses who would like to begin a career in flight nursing. We know that most nurses have access to online information, journals or e-books. Here at the Critical Care and Flight Nursing forum we pride ourselves in offering an insight into the experiences of nursing colleagues. Such insights offer a completely different perspective with the emphasis on the practical rather than the theoretical.

Facilitating networking is one of the key priorities of the flight nursing team this year as they continue their flight nurse specific events. This complex and at times grueling nursing role often means flight nurses are working in isolation without the implicit support and debriefing that a ward environment can offer. The forum have identified the benefits of bringing flight nurses together to share experiences and may potentially begin work on a competency framework for this unique role.

Probably one of the most important objectives that we have set ourselves for this year is to provide you the members of the forum with a more up to date and useful website. Continuing the aim of offering professional insights into nursing roles we are already hosting career profiles of several flight nurses so that those of you wishing to begin a flight nurse career may learn how others have gone about it.