Michelle Young

Matron, Sandwell and Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

I have thought long and hard about what it is I hope to achieve from the programme.  I have written and re-written this piece a number of times with little success.

As a mental health nurse, the same as any other discipline in nursing, we all work in extremely difficult and challenging environments.  The negative publicity surrounding the provision of health care, the increasing number of complaints, the continued cuts backs in budgets, staff leaving the profession in high numbers, the ever increasing pressure of yet more additions to our already over stretched workloads, the lack of recognition of the good will of staff all serve only to demoralise and demotivate us and the teams we work with.

In reality what I hope to achieve from the programme is for it to encourage me to realise that it is possible to drive forward change, for us to feel that we are able to provide better services for patients, carers and, if I’m totally honest, most of all staff.

For people to feel valued, cared for and most of all respected, they need their continued hard work, loyalty, opinions, and suggestions for improvement to be heard and recognised.

Ultimately, if our staff do not feel valued and respected then how, in all honesty can we expect them to deliver high quality care?