What my job as a chief nursing officer involves
Chief nursing officer Jo Haworth explains what her NHS job involves and how the professional development and education of nursing staff are high on her agenda.
Jo Haworth took up her first chief nurse post at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in July 2022.
When Jo Haworth stepped up at short notice to the role of chief nursing officer at a London hospital during the second wave of the pandemic, it helped her realise she was ready for her next career challenge.
‘It opened my eyes to what this kind of role was like. It gave me the appetite to want to do it and the confidence to think I could, despite it being the hardest time in my career,’ says Ms Haworth, who was deputy chief nurse at the time.
Now chief nurse at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, staff well-being and supporting the professional development and education of nursing staff are high on her agenda.
Investment in education has a positive impact on staff retention, she believes.
‘Looking back at my own career, I didn’t want to leave an organisation when I felt valued and was growing, and wanted to use those new skills to benefit my patients. That underpins why I want to do this for everyone else.’
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This is an abridged version of the article Becoming a chief nurse: what I’ve learned in the first year which was first published in Nursing Standard
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