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The Nurses Symposium was organised by the Royal Hospitals NHS Trust (RHT) at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.
Union leaders and senior nursing staff addressed the conference on pay, training and the future of the health service.
'More than a pay issue'
Jonathan Asbridge is chief nurse to the RHT. He said: "All the nurses here understand that there is much more to the current crisis than pay - important though that is.
"Nurses provide 80% of direct patient care and so need to be at the heart of decision-making about caring for patients."
He called for nurses to be given a larger role in enforcing the government's promise to improve standards of care in the NHS.
He said: "Nursing is about focusing on the patient - not just performing a task. Nurses need the skills to take forward the Government's agenda of improving clinical governance and of involving patients and carers.
"This means excellent training, an increase in status among health professionals, combined with enhanced recognition and better pay and conditions.
"This country needs a twenty-first century nursing service. Without it we will not get a better health service."
Ways to progress
Christine Hancock, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), suggested ways to achieve Mr Asbridge's goals.
![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/255000/images/_259934_hancock150.jpg)
She told the symposium about studies that showed how nurses in positions of responsibility improved the quality of health care.
One US study showed that death rates were cut by five per cent "where nurses are given the chance to exercise their professional judgement on a routine basis".
She said: "As nurses we desperately need this evidence to prove our worth - especially in a climate where the value of nursing care sometimes seems under threat."
She attacked the move towards using unqualified staff, which was an international phenomenon.
"In the US, for example, the driver for reducing the number of registered nurses has been cost containment. At home it has been the chronic shortage of registered nurses," she said.
The RCN estimates that the NHS is short 13,000 registered nurses.
She added: "Nurses need the confidence to act on their decisions and take control of the health care agenda.
"Uncovering the value of nursing arts starts with nurses themselves. It's about standing together and believing that what we do for patients really does make a difference."
Government plans
The government hopes to recruit another 15,000 nurses to the profession.
It has launched a £50m package to tackle the shortages. The plans include making it easier for those who have left nursing to return and funding for unqualified care assistants to train and become registered nurses.
The RHT presented a report to the symposium with proposals for raising the status of nurses and improving their access to decision-making processes.
An independent pay review body is set to make recommendations to the government on nurses' pay within the next two weeks.
Background Briefings
Medical notes
Unqualified staff teach nurse trainees
(20 Jan 99 | Health)
Nurses: a degree of success
(18 Jan 99 | Health)
Nursing recruitment is 'international disgrace'
(08 Jan 99 | Health)
Royal College of Nursing
UNISON
Department of Health
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