Retaining the Passion: Journeys Through Nursing

In this latest episode, we join Clare and Craig to talk about imposter syndrome in nursing and also about how the new NHS England Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) programme can work in some way to address this phenomenon, which is all too real for so many of us nurses.

They are delighted to be joined by two fantastic nurses. First, Daneka Dunne, a Registered Nurse (Mental Health) working in an Accident and Emergency Liaison Team in Greater Manchester joins them to share her candid, heartfelt, open and honest story of her own experiences with imposter syndrome and how it affects her in her day-to-day life as a nurse. We are so grateful to her bravery in discussing what can be a very difficult topic to address.

Next, Clare and Craig speak to the inspirational Dr Emma Wadey PhD, a Registered Nurse (Mental Health), and Deputy Director of Mental Health Nursing for NHS England and Improvement and a Consultant Nurse in Psychiatric Liaison. Emma talks about even at her stage in her career she also experiences imposter syndrome. She also goes on to discuss the fantastic Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) programme and its role in NHS England.

The PNA programme delivers training and restorative supervision for nursing colleagues right across England. The programme launched in March 2021, towards the end of the third wave of COVID-19. This was the start of a critical point of recovery: for patients, for services and the workforce. PNA training provides those on the programme with skills to facilitate restorative supervision to their colleagues and teams, in nursing and beyond. A version of this programme existed already for maternity colleagues, where outcomes pointed to improved staff wellbeing and retention, alongside improved patient outcomes. The training equips them to listen and to understand the challenges and demands of fellow colleagues and to lead support and deliver quality improvement initiatives in response. The PNA programme is the first of its kind for nursing not just in England, but across the world.

For more information about NHS England’s national programme, contact their central Professional Nurse Advocates Team at england.nursingpna@nhs.net or visit the website at https://www.england.nhs.uk/nursingmidwifery/delivering-the-nhs-ltp/professional-nurse-advocate/.

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