The Government has said that new GP commissioning consortia and local authority health and wellbeing boards will need to “create incentives” to encourage nurses and midwives to promote health improvement and health and wellbeing as part of their day-to-day patient activities.
In its response to the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England, published by the outgoing Labour Government in 2010, the coalition emphasised that there will be a director of nursing within the Department of Health who will help to shape public health policy.
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“This will be a senior leadership post within the department and incorporate public health and relate to Public Health England. It will ensure the nursing and midwifery voice is heard when public health policy is discussed and shaped,” it added.
Nurses and midwives also need to be seen as “role models for healthy living”, with organisations employing nurses and midwives encouraged to implement the recommendations of the Boorman review and clamp down on abuse and assaults.
