Westminster Abbey was
packed with nurses, many were in the superbly uniformed ranks of service men
and women but there were also nurses from every civilian rank and file: care support workers
through to the chief nursing officer for England, Professor Jane Cummings. The woman next to me was limbering up with gentle
humming under her breath, familiarising herself with the hymns in the service
sheet. The ladies the other side of me and all around were chatting to each
other and some were calling out as they spotted old friends.
This was my first time
at the annual service to commemorate the life of Florence Nightingale. Speak it
quietly but I’ve never been a huge fan of Florence and have always felt she has
been heralded in the public eye to the exclusion of some other pretty amazing nurse
leaders (Mary Seacole, Edith Cavell, Ethel Bedford Fenwick, to name a few). But, as I am writing a book on the Rituals and Myths in Nursing, I was intrigued to witness this ultimate ritual in the
nursing calendar: the celebration of Florence’s life.
As you will know, Florence was known as
the ‘the lady with the lamp’, during her work in Crimea, and a lamp is kept in
the Florence Nightingale chapel (yes really) at Westminster Abbey. The lamp was carried in
procession by a Florence
Nightingale Foundation scholar Sandra Mononga and the Lamp party was escorted
by student nurses and midwives from Edinburgh
Napier University, dressed in white uniforms and hats. The ceremony
involves a series of processions through the Abbey to celebrate nurses who have
served and continue to serve. First off were the Chelsea Pensioners – taking
part in memory of Florence and her care of the troops – their predecessors – during
the Crimean Campaign. Honorary officers of the Florence Nightingale Foundation
were followed by the masters and warden of the newly formed Guild of Nurses and after that were a
stream of nurse representatives from the many and varied corners of nursing and
the armed forces.
The service is
supported by the Florence
Nightingale Foundation (a ‘living memorial to Florence Nightingale’). The service
is held as close as possible to 12th May – Florence’s birthday and now
International Nurses Day. This year there was a bit of a clash: for the
ceremony was held on 17th May which coincided with RCN congress,
both huge events in the nursing calendar. The story has it that the RCN
president, Cecilia Amin, had to hotfoot it down from Congress in Liverpool to
attend the hour long ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
Of course there were more
than enough nurses to go round for both events with plenty others still on duty.
According to Statista
the statistics portal, there are 675,000 nurses in the UK and that doesn’t, as far as I can ascertain, include the armed services. Yet, still wards and services are short staffed.
For me, the clash of
dates brought into focus the very different facets of nursing and nurses. On
the one hand at Congress nurses were fighting to be heard by politicians and
public alike: concerns about pay restraint, loss of real term income, nursing
bursaries and shortage of skilled nursing care in every aspect of the health
service. Whilst at Westminster Abbey, nurses were celebrating the art and
science of what makes nursing good, away from the daily grind of long hours and
poor reward.
Whilst Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron appeared at Congress to promise the
kind of basic improvements in pay and conditions that nurses are desperate to
see, the Conservatives saw no point in being targets for metaphorical if not
actual egg throwing. The Tories know that the public still does not grasp
how poorly recompensed nurses are and that the power to change this and how the
NHS is regarded lies with their vote. And perhaps even politicians could see
the hypocrisy in attending an event to celebrate the very foundation of nursing
when as leaders they appear so unconcerned for the profession's future?
Nurses’ pay has been
relentlessly held back. The 1% cap is eroding nurses’ pay now and in the
future. It is the reason that nurses are using food banks, no more complex than
that. This, together with an overall shortage of nurses, downgrading of posts, loss
of the nursing bursary and a political failure to actually care, means we are headed to
months of disruption and potential strike action amongst a dedicated long
suffering workforce. My guess is that
the politicians will ride it out, just like they did with the junior doctors.
Short term success, being the only show in town because that sets the scene for
longer term demise of a service that people will only value once it has gone.
As the woman next to me
in the Abbey launched into the first hymn with a deafening but fortunately,
tuneful voice, I realized that in reality these two celebrations were one and
the same: Congress being the current vociferous call for action protecting the
ancient bedrock of nursing, the history of which was being celebrated in the
Abbey, both reminding us of the values and commitment of nursing’s predecessors
and the fight that is on for its future.