Anchoring action with our values
Published: 7 December 2009
As the first decade of the new millennium draws to a close we are reminded constantly of the challenges that confront us on multiple fronts —the expectations and demands for responses are unrelenting. Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of us and they want it now.
New technologies such as email, text messaging and online social networking highlight the unrealistic culture of "instantaneous gratification" that is the hallmark of 21st century life. The focus is primarily on response time rather than the quality of the interaction. Thoughtful analysis and reflection take a back seat.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Luddite —I love new technologies and the way the world has been brought to us through our computers and phones.
The technological advances and efficiency gains we have seen in our work and personal lives over the past twenty years have been nothing short of astounding.
Just think how nursing and midwifery have changed over the last few decades due to technologies that have resulted in decreasing length of stay, increased acuity levels of patients/residents, changes in models of care and patient flows.
The unrelenting quest for greater efficiency, driving the health and aged care dollar further, treating more within always constrained budgets, is unsustainable. The effectiveness and quality of nursing and midwifery will suffer unless all the activity that is demanded of us is firmly anchored in our core values and our vision for high standards for the product of our labour.
To make effective decisions in such a demanding context it is essential that we make time to take stock of what it is at the core of nursing and midwifery.
If we do not, we will simply be reacting to all the demands that are placed upon us from multiple directions. Our values provide the frame through which we determine our objectives and priorities —without them we have no anchor.
At its October meeting the QNU Council approved a new strategic plan for our Union to cover the three year period 2010-2012.
This plan (which will feature in the first journal of 2010) outlines our operational objectives within the seven domains of the work of the QNU: Direction and Focus, Operational, Industrial, Professional, Political, Social and Democratic.
The plan also contains our Union’s vision, mission and values statement. The values statement drives what we do —our Union openly commits to a set of Union and nursing values and we judge our work within the context of this values framework.
The Union values we commit to are collectivism, equality, fairness, opportunity and sustainability and the nursing values are caring, professionalism, advocacy and holism. These have not just been plucked out of thin air—they are the result of years of research, reflection and debate within the union movement and nursing. For the nursing values, the work that the QNU has done with the Let’s talk nursing project has been critically important.
This may all sound airy fairy and esoteric, but if we do not know the values we stand for and what is important to us and drives our work, then how can we prioritise the demands that are placed upon us, take appropriate action and then monitor and reflect on the success of our activities?
We need to use the frame of our values to make determinations on a daily basis about prioritising and responding appropriately to these competing and at times unrelenting, and sometimes contradictory, demands that are placed upon us.
As this year comes to a close it is important we take time to stop and reflect on what we did well, what we could have done better and what is likely to confront us going forward. This must be viewed through our values frame, after all that is what guides us and keeps us doing what we do.
Have a safe and relaxing festive season and take some time out for yourself to think and recharge the batteries. Doing so will serve us well in facing the challenges the New Year will undoubtedly bring.
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