Share stories of nursing with the next generation
The RCN Foundation is working with leading children's book publisher Scholastic to produce an illustrated book that introduces young readers to the world of nursing and midwifery through first-person stories.
The premise of this book is to celebrate the nursing and midwifery professions, creating a beautiful love letter that will inspire future generations. The book will be published in February 2023 to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS.
A 50p contribution from the sale of each book will go to the RCN Foundation to help us continue to support nursing and midwifery staff across the UK.
We are inviting nurses and midwives across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England to share their most inspiring and entertaining anecdotes for a young audience. Scholastic will present these stories in a hardcover book for children aged eight and upwards, giving them encouragement to perhaps become nurses or midwives themselves one day.
We hope to show young people the varied nature of nursing and midwifery, from tending to emergencies to bringing new life into the world. These are skilled professions that attract talented, dedicated people from all backgrounds – and this is something we want to celebrate too.
We would love for members of the nursing and midwifery teams to write their favourite nursing story, in a way that children can enjoy.
What we’re looking for
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Short anecdotes and stories from people who work/have worked in a nursing or midwifery role.
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Observations or direct experiences from members of the nursing and midwifery professions, appropriate for readers aged 8+.
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These anecdotes, stories and observations will be positive in feel, aimed at celebrating nurses and midwives and what they do, as well as encouraging children to consider a nursing role as their future profession.
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The team at Scholastic will edit contributions for consistency and to help make them inspiring and appropriate for all ages.
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The anecdotes/stories will be between 200 and 500 words long – a variety of lengths would be ideal.
How to take part
For inspiration, story prompts and examples, download our short PDF guide to crafting your submission. You can read an example contribution here from Layla, a midwife.
Get the essentials of your story written down in an email and send it to Samantha Soares at Samantha.Soares@rcnfoundation.org.uk by 6 May 2022.
We will get back to you and work with you to get your story ready for publication.
If you know friends and colleagues who might have a good nursing tale to share with the next generation, do send them a link to this page.
We look forward to reading many wonderful stories!