Florence
Nightingale
Foundation

On Tuesday 28 February between midday and 1pm, join ShinyMind and FNF for a twitter space discussion on student attrition and the collaboration required to support student nurse and midwife wellbeing. Our Head of Nursing and Midwifery Engagement, Jess Sainsbury, is co-hosting and here are her thoughts ahead of this important discussion.

In April 2021 I joined FNF on secondment to project lead the Student Councils Programme establishing six multi-professional student-shared professional decision-making councils across the South East region of England on behalf of Health Education England. The Councils are now in operation with nearly 50 active student leaders and advocates who can inform and influence decision-makers. It also gives us at FNF access to a consistent student voice.

In our most recent reflections report student well-being was identified as an area of concern for our student council members. While there are services available at Universities and in Practice it appears that access to these services for students is not equitable and often students are not aware of what is available to them. I hope that FNF’s continued collaboration with ShinyMind will help to alleviate this with the creation of a student version of ShinyMind.

I am pleased that FNF’s engagement with students has flourished in recent years including our practice-based leadership programme at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, our annual FNF Students Day followed by our Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service where students are a key part of the procession, guest lecturer teaching sessions at Universities, social media and webinar interactions, and membership of the FNF Academy through their Universities or Integrated Care Systems which opens even more opportunities to the next generation. Our community at FNF is available to all, no matter what stage in their nursing and midwifery career.

Through this variety of interactions with the next generation of our workforce it will be no surprise to you that from my scribbled notes I often find that mental health and wellbeing is discussed and raised as an issue for students. This is not a new problem but that does not mean that it is therefore no longer important as attrition rates remain high. The twitter space discussion will enable students to quiz our panel members on their opinions but more importantly their commitment to collaborative action. We need to work together to solve student nurse and midwife attrition.

The beauty of it is there are no cameras! Twitter spaces are audio only so you can listen while carrying on with your day or, even better, take the time to have a break while listening. Either way, I would love for you to join us. For those who cannot join live, the ShinyMind team will be recording the session so you can catch up afterwards.  

As for my commitment to collaborative action? I am committing to strengthening the #FNFStudents voice, activity and collaboration throughout our FNF Academy Members and friends of FNF. It is also important that this work is led by students, at our FNF Students Day on 16 May we will be announcing the next steps of our #FNFStudents engagement activities – watch this space.

If you would like to learn more and get involved, your organisation can join the FNF Academy as a Member. Visit our membership webpage to find out more and sign up.

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #FNFStudents, looking forward to ‘hearing’ you!