Page 4 - QARANC Vol 16 No 2 2018

2 QARANC THE GAZETTE
President’s Foreword
Welcome to the Autumn edition of your Gazette. Throughout my thirty years in the Corps I have always eagerly awaited the arrival of the Gazette and the opportunity to read about the activities and events that our Association members are participating in. The diverse contributions from our Regular, Reserve and Retired personnel are evidence of the busy pace of life which sees our members move seamlessly from sport to operational tours to commemorative events. In all of those areas we continue to excel and emanate professionalism in the finest traditions of our Corps and I hope you enjoy reading about these activities and events as much as I do.
It is seven months since I was appointed as the Chief Nursing Officer (Army), Head of the QARANC and President of the Association. It is truly an honour to have been selected for this appointment and I will do my utmost, as all my predecessors have, to uphold our heritage and ensure that we continue to demonstrate our professionalism and dedication to the advancement of military nursing. As you know the CNO (A) appointment is now a secondary duty and I have another significant role in addition to CNO (A). This makes life exceptionally busy and is only manageable with considerable support from the other senior members of our Corps both Regular, Reserve and Retired. I am truly heartened by the support I have received thus far.
Despite the hectic pace of life, I have managed to get around the country to attend a variety of Corps events and meet as many people as possible. The Corps Day in Catterick in March was my first official event and it was a marvellous opportunity to see and meet so many Corps members old and new. The event was superbly organised by DMG (North) to whom I would like to extend my thanks. We have held a series of Study Days for the regular Corps members at Senior Officer, Junior Officer and SNCO level and the feedback from each of these has been overwhelmingly positive showing that our current serving members remain committed and engaged with Army nursing.
The biggest nursing workstrand I am currently engaged in is the long overdue Nursing Capability Review. We
are reviewing all nursing capabilities, including our vital healthcare assistants, to ensure that we have kept pace with advancements in civilian nursing practice and that our regular structures provide appropriate career progression in all the supported specialities, general nursing and healthcare. This is a pure review and is not under remit to deliver savings as reviews so often are; it therefore, represents a significant opportunity to improve our current structures for the benefit of current and future personnel. The aim is to develop a modernised nursing capability, with appropriate career opportunities to maintain the motivation of our personnel and ultimately to enable us to continue to deliver the best possible nursing care for our patients. The review is due to report its recommendations in December 2018 so I will be able to update you further in the spring edition. Importantly the outcomes will then be taken forward into a Defence Nursing Programme and a review of the Reserve Field Hospitals.
My latest representational duty was at the graduation ceremony for the nurses who have just completed their degrees at Birmingham City
University and then their transition to military practice course. I am pleased to tell you that they have achieved outstanding academic success with all the defence students gaining either 1st Class honours or a 2:1. To put that into perspective, if Defence was a university in its own right, we would be the top performing nursing university in the country. Chatting to these individuals and their families, as they embark on their clinical careers, it left me feeling overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of military nursing for it will clearly be in safe hands. I’m sure you join me in congratulating them on their success and will welcome them into their units as they begin their careers as qualified Army nurses.
Finally, I am pleased to announce that my tenure as Chief Nursing Officer (Army) has been extended from its initial 10 months (my probation!) for a further 36 months until November 2021. I look forward to meeting many more of you over the coming months and particularly next year for our 70th Anniversary celebrations.
Colonel Alison McCourt President QARANC Association