NHS 75th anniversary is time to reflect on our achievements
Dr Val Ness, Head of the Department of Nursing and Community Health in the School of Health and Life Sciences, marks the 75th anniversary of the NHS with a reflective blog.
As the NHS celebrates 75 years since it was founded, the Department of Nursing and Community Health at Glasgow Caledonian University, reflects on its achievements and considerable contribution to the NHS, especially in light of recent challenges. The ethos of the Department is “improving lives” and that continues to be what drives our staff who are passionate about nursing, public health and community health.
Glasgow Caledonian is one of the largest providers of both undergraduate and post-graduate nurse education in Scotland. It offers all four fields of nursing (adult, child, learning disability and mental health) at Ordinary degree and Honours degree level, as well as a pre-registration Masters programme in adult nursing for those who already have a degree and a Return to Practice programme for those who left the nursing or midwifery register but wish to return.
This year alone more than 650 students will graduate with their nursing degree and Nursing and Midwifery Council registration, and the numbers graduating are set to increase with more than 800 new student nurses who joined GCU in 22/23. Many of these students come from areas of multiple deprivation and we are committed to ensuring access to education regardless of background -thus also improving the lives of our students and their families.
The University has also been at the forefront of educational preparation of registered practitioners in advanced practice for the last 20 years. The expert academic team and clinical partners have worked with government and key advanced practice organisations to shape advanced practice from a patchwork of short courses into the advanced practice named pathways and programmes that we offer today. These include preparation of advanced nurse practitioners, district nurses, health visitors, the first in Scotland named post-graduate and graduate awards for clinical nurse specialists and post-graduate advanced clinical nurse specialists, and the only pathways for Non-medical Cystoscopy and Non-medical Endoscopy practitioners.
Additionally, our work-based learning modules at undergraduate and post-graduate level contribute to a flexible mode of learning which meets the needs of our clinical partners. Our programmes throughout the School of Health and Life Sciences prepare hundreds of practitioners including nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, physiotherapists and radiographers each year for the NHS. This contributes to expert clinical practitioners who are able to offer quality care to the communities they serve. We are very proud of our team and our alumni, and the continued contribution they make to healthcare education and clinical care in Scotland.
One other large post-graduate programme, taught at both our Glasgow and London campuses, is the Master of Public Health (MPH). An international workforce to take forward the public health agenda is needed more than ever as we face increasing inequalities, along with an ageing population, increased long-term conditions, migration, climate change and the threat of future pandemics. The MPHs programme also addresses our ambition to improve lives, through teaching practitioners, about the prevention of disease, the promotion of health, and the protection of the health and wellbeing of the public through education, research and public health practice and service.
The Department also has a vibrant research community, which is embedded within our educational programmes and focuses on applying evidence into practice to support our practitioners within the NHS and other organisations, locally, nationally and internationally to improve care in Public Health and Long-Term Conditions. The success of its research was evidenced in the latest UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) which showed that 91% of the University’s health research was classified as world-leading or internationally excellent, and more than 80% was classified as outstanding for its impact, a result only surpassed by one other University in the UK.
A lot to be proud of in a much shorter period of time than 75 years!