Time to Pledge to Make a Difference Guest Post from Alison Tait SPNA Committee

A few months back I had the great honour to speak at the SPNA annual conference  you can read more about the event and read the inspiring pledges we received on that day HERE 
Allison Tait  Scottish Practice Nurse Committee. NES General Practice Nurse Supervisor who iinvitedme to speak at the event has kindly sent a blog post looking back at the day and taking the pledges forward 
Thank You Allison for the kindness ,pledges and for your thoughts 
tommy 

Time to Pledge to Make a Difference

On the 15^th of May 2014 Tommy Whitelaw came to the Scottish Practice Nurse Conference.  The conference was well attended with General Practice Nurses coming from all over Scotland. Tommy was our first speaker on the day. For most of us working in General Practice this would be our first introduction to an exciting new project from the Health and Social Care Alliance. It is the Dementia Carer Voices project and calls upon Scotland’s Health and Social Care professionals to consider how they can assist people with dementia and their carers'. 

Many of us have been in nursing and in primary care for many years and Tommy had us reflecting on how we could make a difference. Tommy is an amazing man who told us of his mother Joan and their subsequent journey as dementia entered their lives. The feedback to the Practice Nurses who organised the conference included  “we should have put tissues on the table". He reminded us of why we came into nursing and how we could make a difference in the lives of those touched with dementia.

Tommy told us of his experience and how he and Joan attended the reception of his local practice to seek help and support whilst he felt he was drowning with the numerous and varied needs that they had. As she didn’t have an appointment he was effectively turned away and given leaflets to read. There wasn’t one of us in the room who didn’t think that our practices could have turned Tommy and his Mum away and we wondered how and if we could make a difference in any way.

We do have the ability to make a difference and we are well placed at the heart of General Practice to this - every one of us.

According to figures from the Information Services Division Scotland (ISD), practice nurse consultations increased to 7.6m in 2011/12, compared to 6.1m the previous year – and now account for 30% of all practice consultations. GPNs are at the very centre of General Practice and support the ethos of the RCGP campaign to 'Put Patients First'. It's known that patients value general practice very highly, and rank GPs as one of the most trusted of all professions. We have to ensure that we are all worthy of accolade by helping Tommy and making pledges to support him in his task to ensure Dementia Carer Voices are heard.

Dr Sam Tang new GP trainee and new receptionist Denise Crosby. 

 

Thanks for reading my blog, You can now view my 8 short flims here! http://tommy-on-tour-2011.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/my-mums-name-was-joan-this-is-our-story.html