Today’s episode is all about the story of how nurses are supporting other nurses in the UK. 

We dive deep into the Professional Nurse Advocacy (PNA) program in the UK and how it is helping with nurse wellbeing and staff retention.  

I chat to Martin Hogan, Lead Professional Nurse Advocate for a large healthcare organisation in the UK. He shares his story of how he got into supporting other nurses, and how his leadership is making an impact on staff wellbeing.

Thinking about becoming a PNA? Want to know more about the program?

Listen to this conversation as Martin shares how being a PNA has changed his life and that of others. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

PNAs are trained to provide Restorative Clinical Supervision (RCS). This is a psychologically safe, confidential space where you can talk about how you are and offload.

Martin sees himself as an emotional detective that explores things about other people, their coping strategies, and what he can do to help.

Informal corridor conversation is where Martin had typically received his own supervision, before more formalised systems like the PNA program. This is likely true of many nurses.

Martin shared that he gained much from the PNA course and changed his practice as a result.

Being a PNA enables you to be really in touch with your own human experience. It permits you to acknowledge your feelings. 

Through compassionate communication, Martin knew that he could support people through anything. 

Empathic listening is all someone needs to begin with to feel heard, understood, and safe.

Martin talks about the structure of sessions when running a PNA session.

Feedback from others about the PNA program has been overwhelmingly positive for Martin. It has helped improve wellbeing in staff and has led to increased retention of staff where he works. 

Martin shares information about the roll-out of the PNA program and how people can access it.

We discussed barriers to the program being adopted within nursing. We discuss how some older colleagues may be resistant to change. However, many younger nurses “get” the idea of clinical supervision and have a desire to discuss emotions. 

Today's Guest:

Martin Hogan is a lead professional nurse advocate at Central London Community Healthcare. After the first wave of the Covid pandemic, he was redeployed from his Macmillan specialist nurse role in acute oncology to intensive care. However, being redeployed to intensive care, he found people did sit him down and openly talk about their feelings, which he found crucial as a form of preventative mental health first aid.

After the second wave of the pandemic, Martin decided to continue to champion the voice of his nursing profession and join the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) as the Senior Officer for Surrey. 

In 2021, his career took on to work within mental health and education. At that point, he took the Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) course at Kingston University.

Connect with Martin Hogan here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-hogan-b0a167138/ 

https://twitter.com/advocacy_forum 

Follow Nathan and Nurse Wellbeing Mission for more practical preventative mental health tools for nurses and midwives:

Join our free Facebook group for wellbeing resources: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nursewellbeingmission 

Find our wellbeing services at our website: www.nursewellbeingmission.com 

Instagram: @_nursewellbeingmission 

Twitter: @NurseWellbeing