Top RCN nurse to take up placement in our Forensic and Prison Services
A senior member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is to join our healthcare team in Rochester Prison for a 'back to the floor' placement in January 2015.
A senior member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is to join our healthcare team in Rochester Prison for a 'back to the floor' placement in January 2015.
Ann Norman is the RCN Professional Nurse Adviser for Learning Disability and Criminal justice Nursing. Her decision to spend time at Rochester followed a meeting last year at the RCN with our very own Nina Turner, who is Healthcare Manager at the prison.
Back to the floor placements allow senior NHS staff to gain first hand experience of conditions for front line staff. They also help them to gain valuable insights into patient experience.
Nina Turner is well known for her achievements in helping to introduce an innovative programme of Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Maidstone Prison, work for which she received the Nursing Times Respiratory Award 2013, together with Lead Physiotherapist Helen Jefford and fitness instructors at Maidstone Prison. She said that the meeting with Ann came about following an exchange of emails: "I found her to be inspiring and passionate about prison healthcare with lots of experience. Ann has provided me with lots of support and I am very happy that she will be coming to Rochester Healthcare to spend time with us!
"Ann will be 'rolling her sleeves up' as she put it, working with frontline staff running day to day clinics and will be with us for the best part of a week."
A registered nurse of over 30 years standing, Ann joined the Prison Service in 1992 and received a Nursing Standard award in 1998 for recognition of developing services to female prisoners. Later in 1999 she was awarded a further Prison Service award for her work at HMP Winchester. She sits on a number of national advisory groups and expert panels including Sir Jonathan Michael's Independent Inquiry which resulted in 'Healthcare for All' (2008) and currently the NHS England Health & Justice Clinical Reference Group.