In early June, myself and the Chief Executive. Alex Mair went to the Annual Dinner of the Royal College of Nursing in a splendid Art Deco hotel in London. We were strategically placed at different tables which gave us a chance to meet lots of interesting folk in the nursing world.

Agenda for change
It is said that size matters and the RCN in the UK counts its membership in 6 figures (the BGS by way of contrast, has an international membership of a little over 2200). This year the RCN was celebrating a number of events and the President at the start of the evening alluded to the imminent introduction of a major reconfiguration of methods of working and payment for nurses – amongst other healthcare staff – called ‘Agenda For Change’ (click here for details). Although delayed, when introduced this piece of managerialism will have a profound effect on how our colleagues will be operating. The achievement of competencies will allow for improved pay and we will therefore continue to see nurses taking on more and more responsibilities. In the area of geriatric practice there will be lots of situations, when you remember the context of the National Service Framework for older people, where they can drive on service development. Many of these developments are not ‘badged’ any longer to be delivered by doctors.

The proceedings of the evening illustrated this when the 2003 Mary Seacole award holder, Sharon Simpson Prentis had the floor after dinner to talk about two particular issues.

The first was a project she was involved with in Leeds, which led to her award. This project was to do with Medicines Management, an important part of the NSF for older people. She reminded the audience of the “old” way of dealing with pharmacology and patients i.e. the doctor prescribed, the pharmacist dispensed, and the nurse administered. All change now. Sharon illustrated her talk with examples of how much she is able to satisfy the thirst for knowledge of patients about their medicines, by using her knowledge of the products, in terms of their kinetics and dynamics.

Medicine and ethnic folklore
Better still, the information is tailored to patients in their own homes. These patients are from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and many are living with notions about medicines, inherited from their ethnic folklore, which is not always compatible with traditional ‘western’ ideas. By understanding this and dealing with the issues of conflicts between folklore and modern western prescribing, compliance in appropriate ingestion of prescribed medication is vastly improved, thereby reducing side effects in older patients, and reducing unfortunate drug related admissions which we still see far too much of in day to day practice.

The second part of Sharon’s presentation was taken over by her telling the audience that a long-term campaign by the RCN, with the support of their leader Beverley Malone amongst others, was coming to fruition. The purpose of the campaign was to recognise the historical importance of Mary Seacole, a contemporary of Florence Nightingale. This recognition was coming in the 21st century and not the 19th because of the change in the State’s recognition of ethnic minorities and their considerable contribution to the care of patients in Great Britain over many decades.

The award holder’s speech reminded us of the importance of not forgetting predecessors even if recognition has been delayed by past attitudes to minority communities.

An editor’s work is never done
Other parts of the evening were taken up with chats to many nurses representing so many branches of the profession all over the UK, and your Editor, ever mindful of his burden of responsibility, was quick to commission articles for further issues of the Newsletter from these people.

Good quality teamwork is the key to improving the care of our patients and the BGS needs to continue working with such important bodies as the RCN. We are soon to produce our strategy for the future of the Society and these co-operation issues will surely feature large in our plans. We are also, of course, having an interdisciplinary study day in December, as advertised in this issue.

For now, the debate is whether we continue to be an exclusively medical society or broaden our membership to be truly more inclusive of all health care professionals who work with older patients. Share your thoughts on this with me.

Historical note on Mary Seacole
In February 2004 BBC viewers voted Mary Seacole the greatest black Briton.

In 1854 she had travelled to Europe and became an army nurse in the Crimea. She did not have an opportunity to work with Nightingale but used her considerable skills to tend to the wounded and injured on the battle field. She was affectionately known by the soldiers as ‘Mother Seacole’. After the war she was awarded the Crimean Medal, the French Legion of Honour and a Turkish Medal.