‘From caring came courage’
My last editorial was for the May 2020 Urology Supplement. It is a bit of an understatement to say that it feels like a lifetime ago. We had freedom and foreign holidays back then. The title was ‘With hope in our hearts’ (from the song You'll Never Walk Alone) and was written back in March and has an almost providential ring to it. It is a tune I turn to too often. Anyone who attended the BAUN Conference 2019 will know what it symbolises for me, but I didn't expect it to become Captain Tom's (and Michael Ball's) anthem or to hear it being sung so often. It's almost the theme tune for 2020.
Conference 2019 was themed ‘resilience’. This year's conference theme, born in Bournemouth 2018, is titled ‘Harnessing Courage’. Every single nurse during the past 9 months will have used every ounce of resilience and courage they have. I know the nurses around me have, and continue to do so, day in and day out. 2020 will be remembered for many things and, increasingly, for the many new words added to our vocabulary—I'm just looking at the C words …
How visionary of the World Health Organization to designate 2020 as the first ever global Year of the Nurse. From Crimea to COVID-19—I'm not sure anyone thought, in Florence Nightingale's bicentennial, that a pandemic would arise to increase our profile. I wonder, how the world will view nursing and nurses in the coming years? Will we have an influx of student nurses? Will we have high profile nursing leadership? Will our national organisations collectively voice nurses' concerns? Will we see pay rises reflecting the work nurses perform? Will nurses turn from ‘silence to voice’? (Silence to Voice: What nurses know and must communicate to the public is a book by Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon, that I recommend you all Google and consider reading).
I am truly honoured that the Chief Nursing Officer for England, Ruth May, has agreed to open conference and present the Eileen O'Hagan lecture in 2020. Her quote about the Year of the Nurse has been born out during 2020.
‘In 2020, the spotlight is on us: nurses and midwives are being celebrated not just in England but across the globe. This is the chance to highlight our vast and varied skills and the work we do, and to ensure our professional voice is heard and represented at the heart of all health and care decisions and policy.’
Conference 2020 will be virtual and is free to BAUN members (for non-members the fee is £55 and they will become a BAUN member for a year). Like the rest of 2020, it has been a challenge. As a group of trustees we have had many momentous decisions to make this year and if we didn't have grey hairs and the odd wrinkle before we most certainly do now! I do believe the conference organisers and trustees have pulled it off, the proof will be in the watching, interaction and feedback. I hope you can join us on 16 and 17 November. The programme looks exciting and the format being virtual adds to an element of surprise and the unknown, just like 2020!
I must take this opportunity to reflect on the collaboration of the trustee crew I have had the privilege to walk alongside and represent during my term of office. I've been doing this a lot recently as I see my term coming to an end. I had 7 years as a BAUN trustee, culminating in the highest award, as voted for by the BAUN members, of 2 years as President. I will never walk away from BAUN, but I know my life is going in a very different personal direction. I have much to be thankful for, I have given of myself 100%, and in 2020 probably 150%. Leading a charity during a pandemic was not part of the plan, it has taken its toll and I do need a break (if only to get married and move to a new house).
BAUN has given me so much. Thank you to all my supporters and critics. Every single one of you has spurred me on to do the best that I could.
At conference I will bow out and leave you in the very competent, capable and compassionate hands of Clare Waymont. I have no doubt she will make her mark as the 11th BAUN president and wish her luck.
I have used several C words during this editorial that have meaning to me. I shall leave you with a final few from Christie Watson The Courage to Care (her new book released in September 2020). It has been a privilege to walk among you and represent you. I feel very humble—thank you.