Page 4 - QARANC Vol 17 No 1 2019

2 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Editorial
Welcome to the Spring 2019 edition of your Gazette! This is an important year for our Corps as we are now 70 years old, and I hope that many of you will be able to join in the celebrations taking place throughout the year. I look forward to receiving your memories and photos of the events you attend so that they can be shared with other Association members through the medium of the Gazette.
I’d like to thank those Association members who let us know that they appreciated the information and photographs of the trustees and Association officers in the Autumn 2018 edition of the Gazette. We will continue to keep you updated with any changes.
Some of you may know already, but it was with real pleasure when I read that the government has at long last decided that veterans are to be issued with an ID card. This will help considerably in proving you were a member of the Armed Forces to various agencies and organisations. It will be issued initially to service leavers, and by the end of 2020, all veterans will be able to apply for one. I’ll keep you updated about how to apply for one in the next edition of the Gazette.
My thanks go to all who contributed articles to this edition, for which I continue to be most grateful. I’d just like to remind everyone to read the guidelines for contributors, not to put photos in your document, and to remember to ask permission for photographs to be used, as well as providing captions. Captions need not be long or witty – and sometimes all you need to do is provide the names of people in the photos!
Alison Spires Editor
President’s Foreword
Welcome to the Spring edition of the Gazette. As I write this, I am watching snow fall on the snowdrops, crocus and daffodils in my garden! Spring is my favourite season, as for me it symbolises regeneration and, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Corps this year, it seems particularly poignant, as we look back and remember our rich history, that we celebrate the achievements of our current Corps members and look forward to how we can innovate to ensure that we remain at the forefront of nursing advancement.
The current serving members of the Corps have been as busy as ever in the six months since I last wrote, and we have achieved several ‘firsts’ for the Corps. Although it is dangerous to highlight individuals, as you always leave someone out, there are two achievements this year that are worthy of note. Firstly, Warrant Officer 1 Lee Richens, our current Corps RSM, has been successful in his application for Commission and has been selected to be the first QARANC soldier to be appointed as the Corps Sergeant Major Army Medical Services. Additionally, Sergeant Brunton has been selected to be the first QARANC Instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Both achievements are superb for the individuals but also the Corps, demonstrating as they do what we have always known – that our individuals are talented, versatile and capable of fulfilling diverse roles across the Army.
The Corps continues to be committed on several overseas operations and exercises. Exercise SAIF SAREEA 3 in Oman was a large exercise which saw QARANC personnel deployed in Role 1 and Role 2 Medical Treatment Facilities. As usual they acquitted themselves to the usual high standard and I have received several letters commending individuals for their outstanding performance. These exercises have provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the new Military Nurse Practitioner capability which will feature in presentations at the Chief Nursing Officer Symposium in March and in several articles in upcoming editions of the Gazette and other medical and nursing publications.
I am pleased to tell you that recruitment is currently very buoyant. Last year we exceeded the recruiting
Colonel Alison McCourt Chief Nursing Officer (Army): Photo courtesy of Tempest Photography
targets that we were set and this year we already have three times as many expressions of interest than we had last year. Of course, some of this increased interest will be due to the situation regarding the civilian nurse bursary and recruiting the individuals is only half the battle; we will then need to retain the individuals, once qualified. The Army Nursing Capability Review aims to improve career opportunities and progression for our serving nurses and healthcare assistants and therefore improve retention. Unfortunately, due to staffing shortages and the sheer volume of work, there has been a delay to the publication of the findings and recommendations of this review and it will now report in April 2019 so I am unable to update you as I had hoped.
The Association continues to be as busy as ever and I am indebted to Sue and Alison at RHQ and to Colonel (Retd) John Quinn who has stepped up as Chairman of the Association. The increased Governance requirements and the complexities of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mean that the Association workload is ever increasing for a very small staff. Consequently, we are reviewing our