New role will help support staff and boost workforce

Meet the experienced nurse whose new role will see her support and guide others to build personal and professional resilience.

Catrin Codd has been appointed as Swansea Bay’s first Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) and will offer support and guidance to district nurses and wound care nurses to support their wellbeing and strengthen the workforce.

Having previously worked as the interim transformational lead for district nursing, Catrin’s role as PNA will also see her identify improvements that can be made to the service.

Staff will also be able to refer themselves to Restorative Clinical Supervision (RCS) sessions where they can talk to Catrin (pictured) about their role or any issues they may be experiencing.

The sessions can either be one-to-one or in a group, with the aim of coming up with a solution.

Staff are able to refer themselves or their managers can refer them if they would like to discuss anything.

Catrin said: “The role is split into four parts around recruitment, staff retention, quality improvement and professional development.

“The recruitment and retention elements are linked to the RCS sessions, which can be held in groups or one-to-one.

“It’s not about solving people’s problems but rather, talking them through and then helping them to come to a conclusion themselves about how they are going to tackle the problem.

“The RCS sessions will also help to support staff with education and helping them to upskill.

“For example, it could be a member of staff who loves the practical side of the job but finds the academic side difficult. We would help to put something in place for someone to support them from an academic perspective.

“We wouldn’t know this unless we were having these conversations.

“We want people to progress as much as they can.”

Group sessions have begun and it is hoped that those who attend can consider other colleagues’ perspectives to help inform their decision making.

Catherine Davies, Deputy Head of Nursing for the Swansea Bay University Health Board’s Primary Community Therapies Group, said: “Catrin’s role will give staff the opportunity to have protected time to share and discuss what is relevant to them, with the aim that RCS will improve individual staff and team health and wellbeing.

“Catrin will be working alongside the teams to feed into the patient experience, patient safety and quality improvement work underway within primary and community care.”

The RCS sessions can also help Catrin identify certain areas for improvement within the service.

“The quality improvement element of the role is about looking at the service as a whole and seeing how we can make improvements,” Catrin added.

“That will also be done through the RCS sessions, where some staff may bring up an issue and question why we do things a certain way and discuss other ideas.

“They could be improvements that we wouldn’t know about unless we had these conversations.

“It’s about trying to make things easier for staff so they are happy within their role.”

The role was initially launched in NHS England, which has carried out research into its effectiveness.

It found that the RCS sessions help to reduce stress and have a positive impact on physical and emotional wellbeing, job satisfaction and relationships with colleagues.

Catrin said: “The purpose of the RCS is to address the emotional needs of staff and support resilience in the workplace.

“If staff are happy, they are likely to be more productive which creates a better outcome for our patients.

“The more support our workforce has through supervision, career development and quality improvement the better able they are to provide effective care.”

Paula Heycock, Head of Nursing for the health board’s Primary Community Therapies Group, said: “We have introduced this new PNA role as a creative approach towards diversifying our workforce to support staff wellbeing, recruitment, retention and succession planning.

“The intention is for this role to give staff a platform to be heard and a voice to be listened to in a very clear and structured way.

“We are challenging the traditional models, methods and structures of nursing services, to include new innovative ways of working.

“We will be measuring the impact in terms of staff retention, sickness levels and career development, and are optimistic the PNA role will have a positive effect.”