Released On 27th Nov 2023
Professional development for social care nurses
Health and social care leaders are hailing the launch of a programme to support nurses and their teams working in social care. The Foundation of Nursing Studies’ highly respected Resilience Based Clinical Supervision (RBCS) programme will benefit nurses across social care.
Resilience-based Clinical Supervision (RBCS) is a form of clinical supervision that focuses on the ‘emotional systems motivating the response to a situation’ and includes elements of mindfulness-based exercises with a view to ‘enhancing well-being, resilience and improving patient care’. It is characterised by:
- Co-creating a safe space.
- Integrating mindfulness-based stress-reduction exercises.
- Focusing on the emotional systems motivating our response to a situation.
- Considering the role of our internal critic in sustaining or underpinning our response to a situation.
- Maintaining a compassionate flow to self and consequently to others.
Evaluation of the impact of RBCS suggests that it can help individuals to develop an increased awareness of the importance of self-care and question organisational practices which impact negatively on wellbeing.
Reacting to the announcement, Deborah Sturdy, England’s Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care and Advisory Group member said, ‘I am pleased to be working with FoNS on developing the RBCS programme. This is a really important opportunity for colleagues across social care to benefit from a supportive approach to supervision.
‘This will help nurses improve their own well-being, that of the teams they lead and ultimately have a positive impact on those in their care. Social care nurses do an incredible job, across a diverse range of services and deserve to have the requisite skills to nurture, validate and support themselves and others in their essential work.’
Over the last 35 years, FoNS has established itself between research and practice through global communities of practice and focuses on person-centred practice development. FoNS works with nurses, midwives and their teams with a clear purpose- that individuals should experience health and social care as person-centred.
FoNS facilitates a number of development programmes and scholarships and is a proud partner of the Burdett Trust.
Joanne Bosanquet, Chief Executive at the Foundation of Nursing Studies said, ‘FONS was honoured to take this amazing model of restorative clinical supervision into its next chapter during the pandemic where we transferred it online to support our Learning Disability and Mental Health student nurses. The evaluation was tremendously positive and gave us the impetus to continue on our mission to embed reflective practice as business as usual across health and social care.’
She added, ‘We are thrilled to be facilitating this first ever nationwide programme, specifically focusing on nursing in social care. It is well documented that nurses in this sector often feel professionally isolated despite practicing at a high level and embracing complexity.’
James Bullion, Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care at the CQC said the regulator is fully behind this programme to ‘provide much-needed support for the dedicated nurses who provide compassionate care across adult social care.’