Mary Seacole AwardsAnnual Report October 2015-2016

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Chair’s Foreword I am delighted to present to you this year’s annual report on behalf of the Mary Seacole Steering Committee. 2016 has been a busy year for the committee and I am grateful to my colleagues who continue to rise to the demands and support the work, through mentoring the awardees, participating in developing additional programmes for the awardees and participating in outreach work to promote the awards and encourage other nurses, midwives and health visitors to apply.

The Mary Seacole Awards continue to provide an opportunity for nurses, midwives and health visitors to develop and enhance their careers through designing and undertaking an individual project of interest to them which will impact and benefit black and minority ethnic (BME) patients. The outputs from the Mary Seacole Awards projects continue to demonstrate the wide-ranging interest and areas where nurses, midwives and health visitors are making an impact on the health of BME patients with the potential for them to become future leaders. I have observed transformational change on a personal level among some of the awardees as they have improved their self-confidence and developed a range of key skills, most importantly, belief in their own ability and potential that will sustain them in their careers. These are made possible in part by the good will and expertise of colleagues who give their time generously to progress the aims of the awards.

The committee would like to thank Health Education England for its continued financial and other in-kind support of the awards, which enables the awardees to undertake such high quality projects and support other key areas in the process. We would also like to thank the Chief Nursing Officer for England for support in offering additional leadership development to the awardees and the continued interest in the Mary Seacole Awards by the Department of Health and NHS England.

Which brings me to farewells... I have to say goodbye to two of our members, Dr David Foster, who retires this year after very ably representing the interests of the Department of Health in recent years and Janet Scammell one of our independent members whose clarity of purpose was so reassuring.

As I hand over the chairship to my colleague Obi Amadi, I anticipate that the coming year will be equally busy, as we have some exciting cutting edge projects for the year ahead. I am grateful to Amy Cole and Siobhan Smyth from the Royal College of Nursing for their huge support over the past two years and their hard work to ensure that the awards are delivered to the same high standards. My sincerest thanks to Emma Barr and Nishma Badiani from the Royal College of Midwives and Susan Bookbinder for her amazing contribution to our work and all the individuals who work behind the scenes to make each award year a success.

Janet Fyle MBE Professional Policy Advisor, Royal College of Midwives

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The impact of the Mary Seacole awardsThe Mary Seacole Awards were established to improve the unmet needs of black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in England. Each year the awards have developed and inspired individual nurses, midwives and health visitors who have in turn contributed to reducing health inequalities and improving health gain of our most underprivileged communities.

Over the past award year, Mary Seacole scholars have delivered on five successful projects and demonstrated their lasting impact on BME communities as well as celebrating significant personal development. The continuing impact of each award is best described by the following reflections from the individual awardees.

“The Mary Seacole Awards consistently and continually demonstrate the wide-ranging areas where nurses are leading change and making an impact with person-centred compassionate care. Their outstanding work to improve leadership skills and health outcomes sets a powerful example, benefiting both the profession and the communities they serve.”

Jane Cummings Chief Nursing Officer for England

“I am delighted that HEE has taken a leadership role in continuing to support these very important awards. It is clear that these awards have a positive impact on health outcomes for BME communities. They also provide nurses the opportunity to develop their research and innovative practices, which in turn helps them to grow in confidence and ability. This is both beneficial for them and most importantly the patients that they care for.”

Professor Lisa Bayliss-Pratt Director of Nursing, Health Education England

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Aissa Edon, FGM Specialist Midwife and Community Midwife Team Leader, The Hillingdon Hospital Foundation NHS TrustReceiving the Mary Seacole Leadership award has been not only an honour and privilege but also quite humbling to have been given this amazing opportunity.

The aim of my project was to understand the NHS service user’s experiences regarding the psychological and the psychosexual management of female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is a fairly well known practice in the UK, however, the health care management is still in its early days in terms of the understanding of specific and global needs and approaches to dealing with FGM.

Thanks to the Mary Seacole Leadership Award I was able to conduct a small scale service improvement study within five NHS trusts in the UK (four in London, one in the Midlands). I collected data using focus groups including male and female participants. The findings were analysed to obtain qualitative results and recommendations were made in order to improve the FGM care with a more holistic approach.

This Mary Seacole leadership awards year has been for me more than words can describe. I have been privileged to meet so many exceptional people who have made my journey truly worthwhile despite a few challenges along the way.

I believe that the award has forever changed my life on an emotional, personal and professional level and I will always be grateful and l will cherish this experience for a lifetime.

Chun Hua Shao, Senior Lecturer, Pre-registration Adult Nursing, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria UniversityBeing an internationally recruited nurse in the UK, Mary Seacole has always been my role model for her passion about quality nursing care to patients, no matter what their background. I was extremely excited and honoured to win the Mary Seacole Development Award 2015/16.

The award has given me many benefits, both personally and professionally. First of all, the award has provided me with the opportunity to explore nursing students’ experiences in intercultural encounters in clinical practice. The findings, which revealed the challenges nursing students face when working with people perceived as different to themselves, will be used to help nursing leaders, practitioners and educators adjust their approach and improve working environments. This in turn will foster a better-prepared nursing workforce for patients from diverse backgrounds.

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Secondly, this award also developed my leadership skills. After accessing one of the most successful nursing leaders from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background. I was particularly inspired by her personal stories, challenges faced and strategies used over the years in order to help BME staff develop confidence. The guidance, support and encouragement from my mentor and supervisor have been phenomenal. They have undoubtedly helped me transform from a passive compliant person to an assertive member of the staff. My efficiency at work has also seen vast improvements.

The report writing and media training programmes organised by the awards steering group have developed my confidence in poster design and seminar paper presentation. I have delivered at the International Networking for Education in Healthcare Conference 7-10 September 2015, based on my Mary Seacole Project. This dissemination activity has raised awareness amongst health care educators of current intercultural communication issues for patients and nursing students; potential strategies and solutions were hotly discussed. The project will be followed by a larger scale research, which will contribute further to my doctoral study.

Gergana Nikolova, Senior Community Midwife, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust The Mary Seacole Development Award has been a life changing milestone, one which has transformed not only the direction of my career but the way I understand and appreciate life.

Living in an era where the challenges facing maternity services are no longer only financial, but much more cultural, racial and ethical; where social media is a significant factor, not only when it comes to providing information, but also when it comes to reducing inequality and isolation. With the support of the Mary Seacole Development award I have had the opportunity to develop an entirely new model of online antenatal and postnatal education for BME mothers and new families. In response to evidence from a literature review showing that mothers from BME communities are at higher risk of insufficient antenatal care mainly due to the language barrier and cultural boundaries, the programme provides essential evidence-based antenatal information in Urdu to mothers with limited English proficiency from the Indian and Pakistani community.

The necessity of the programme has been recognised not only on a national level but also internationally. I will present evidence and data from the programme at the RCM Conference this year and on the ICM Congress in Toronto next year.

My Mary Seacole journey has only just begun. The experience, knowledge and confidence I gained throughout this year, has not only broadened my understanding of what we need to do to support our BME mothers in their journey to motherhood, but also how best to support the NHS services and our society in order to offer equal care to everyone.

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Joanne McEwan, Health Visitor and Specialist Community Public Health Nurse, Oxford Health NHS Foundation TrustWhat a year! It is amazing what the Mary Seacole Leadership Award has enabled me to do.

My project was to produce an app for the iPad to enable health professionals to make sensitive enquiries about female genital mutilation (FGM). I did not previously have any experience in digital health, so I think the biggest challenge for me was the unknown world of app development, as well as the scale of the work.

The project involved establishing a working group of stakeholders which included the digital agency that created the app. The content was derived from focus groups with professionals and women from FGM affected communities.

The result is Let’s talk FGM. Feedback from the pilot was overwhelmingly positive with requests that the app be available to the public, not just health professionals.

Going forward I plan to broaden access of the app to android and iPhone users and improve the content according to the feedback.

The award has enabled me to serve the BME community by creating a quality health promotion tool for them, work confidently with the media, and gain insight in the digital health arena so rarely explored by nurses.

It has been such a phenomenal year that as it comes to a close, I know I will miss it. But the experience I have learned and kudos that the award carries will continue to inspire me throughout my personal and professional development.

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Judith Ormrod, Lecturer, University of ManchesterMy project was about increasing the knowledge, skills and awareness of undergraduate nurses and midwives when caring for women and girls who are at risk, or who have experienced female genital mutilation (FGM).

This project aimed to raise awareness amongst undergraduate nurses and midwives of the legal and safeguarding issues together with the intermediate and long-term effects of FGM in order for them to provide culturally competent care.

Information was gathered from individual interviews with women from practicing communities, third year undergraduate nurses and midwives, together with recent research studies and government publications in order to develop a knowledge assessment tool. A one-day conference was organised with local experts in the field and an animation commissioned, Don’t forget to ask. The animation aims to raise awareness of the needs of women and girls who may be at risk or have experienced FGM.

Key findings highlighted that undergraduate nurses are rarely involved in the screening of women from practicing communities and are largely unaware of the recent Department of Health (2015) guidelines. Undergraduate midwives were the exception since they are routinely taught this topic area and safeguarding issues. Women from practicing communities are rarely screened except when accessing obstetric care. The study day student evaluation suggested more training is required in relation to safeguarding issues and more support needed to provide culturally competent care. The knowledge assessment tool and animation require further piloting in order to measure effect.

The award has offered me the opportunity to work with some amazing and inspirational people and undertake a project which I hope will lead to improved care and support for women and families.

Although the work has provoked more questions than answers it has renewed my passion for nursing and how we aim to make a difference to people’s lives.

I hope to develop my work by collaborating with colleagues within the UK and Europe and have gained more confidence in promoting the ongoing work.

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Looking to the futureWhere else do you see an awards committee made up of Health Education England, the Department of Health, NHS Employers, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Nursing, UNISON, and Unite CPHVA, all working together to support projects to improve the health of BME populations?

The Mary Seacole Awards Steering Group is a unique collaborative that not only supports the awardees with mentorship while they carry out their projects, but also supports them in their wider development, offering them exposure to development and networking opportunities relevant to their subject area.

These projects are increasingly important as we see the changes to the NHS or health and care landscape, which drives us to investigate and test out providing care and doing things differently and hopefully more effectively. These awards allow this to happen and this year will be no exception. The provision and delivery of health and care is so intricately diverse it constantly challenges us and demands us to be creative, that is what our scholars deliver. We look forward to another year of exciting projects and innovation.

On behalf of the steering group, I offer my sincere thanks and gratitude to Janet Fyle, our outgoing chair, for her tireless efforts to extend the impact of our development programme for awardees. For the first time in the coming year we will be working with the King’s Fund to provide our new scholars a bespoke leadership development programme that will help to embed their learning and ensure that the impact of their award year and project is long-lasting.

Finally, as organisations, our commitment to these awards is such that we constantly review what we do to ensure we get best value. As the next chair, my objective will be to ensure that we review our structure and the way we operate to see whether structural and operational change will strengthen, sustain and make us more effective. From this we will be able to consider other funding opportunities that will allow us to expand and increase our offer.

Obi Amadi Lead Professional Officer, Unite CPHVA

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Mary Seacole Steering Group 2015/16

Janet Fyle, Chair RCM representative Professional Policy Adviser Royal College of Midwives

Obi Amadi, Vice Chair CPHVA representative Lead Professional Officer Unite CPHVA

Gail Adams UNISON representative Head of Nursing UNISON

Helen Bedford Independent member Lecturer in Midwifery University of York

Liz Fenton HEE representative Director of Nursing Health Education England

Dr David Foster Department of Health representative Deputy Chief Nursing Officer Department of Health

Stacy Johnson Past Awardee Member Lecturer School of Health Sciences University of Nottingham

Mohamed Jogi NHS Employers representative National Programme Manager NHS Employers

Dr Calvin Moorley Past Awardee Member Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing London South Bank University

Tom Sandford RCN representative Director for RCN England Royal College of Nursing

Dr Janet Scammell Independent member Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life School of Health and Social Care (HSC) Bournemouth University

Lihua Wu Independent member Lecturer, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Manchester

Christine McKenzie Mentor Learning and Development Facilitator Royal College of Nursing

Amy Cole/Siobhan Smyth Awards Officers Governance Advisers Royal College of Nursing

Published by the Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish Square, London, W1G 0RN. October 2016. RCN publication code 005 782.