When somebody is off sick at work, or on holiday, those remaining may pick up the slack, or, those relying on the work may need to wait a while if that work can't be done by others, it is how everyone works, sometimes things get delayed, maybe some profit is lost, nobody dies, right? 

As we and hopefully the general public know by now, you need enough nurses to deliver the amount of care needed at the quality we have worked towards for many decades in the NHS, if you drop below the threshold then those remaining have to work harder, because if you don't, people do die; that's the fundamental difference in our "line of work".

But, a sustained drop in nursing numbers or an increase in demand means those remaining are "picking up the slack" for days and months and now years on end. Part of the RCN's patient safety argument for nurses' increased pay is to stop those leaving nursing for the same money, or sometimes less and if they are very lucky more money, where they aren't picking up any slack and having a much better quality of work-life balance.

It has taken The RCN to verbalise the lack of nurses as a safety-impacting issue, this wasn't news to nurses, employers or governments yet it seemed to have remained a "dirty secret" that was referenced internally by many and some spoke out, are we still living in whistleblowing territory, or is there confusion over NMC codes for nurses in terms of speaking up when patients are at risk, why did it take a union to get the conversation out in the open... We digress.

We asked in a poll if recording habits had changed now it is out in the open that staffing numbers are related to safety and quality, here are the results:

Beyond pay...

As strikes, in and beyond nursing, have publicly highlighted openly the link between staff numbers & safety/quality.

Are you more comfortable to verbalise or document when safety/quality is reduced for patients in your day-to-day role?

Polls are anonymous :)

— WeNurses 💙 (@WeNurses) January 11, 2023

The results show a change in behavior... 

This got us wondering, what other changes can be made in nursing, beyond pay, that we all know need changing, that having a national media and internal focus on nurses' work-life balance could these times of industrial action attention afford us? 

If you've found your voice through industrial action to drive up safety, quality, work-life balance and be able to afford to live too, what else can use this time of focus to achieve?

We'll be exploring this topic through the following questions on the chat:

•  How has the focus on the needs of nurses made you feel over the build-up to and during the current industrial action?

*  How can that feeling help you make positive changes where you work or in the way you work?

•  Other than working conditions and pay, what else is known but has remained taboo to discuss openly for too long?

*  How can we use the strength shown on picket lines and our combined needs to improve other aspects of nursing?

*  How do you think we should capitalise on the current nursing focus and how would you achieve it?

You can use this tweetchat for participatory CPD / Revalidation via #MyWe, here's a how-to guide, and the login link to #MyWe 

If you've not joined a tweetchat before here's how:

Using a hashtag (#) like #WeNurses allows us to use a Twitter feature that shows everyone the tweets that contain it, this allows us to chat with people that we don't follow, yet, enabling the ability for us to chat together on Twitter.

• To see the chat click (or search) for #wenurses on Twitter
• Look out for questions and others' responses that interest you
• To join in, add #WeNurses to your tweets

Regardless of your role if you are passionate about our work then you are very welcome to join in.

Do join in, your views, ideas, and shared experience add real value to others on the chat.

Chat Picture Credit @WeNurses