Follow Your Compassion - The Kings Fund
“Follow Your Compassion is an ethnographic record of the working lives of twenty two newly qualified and registered nurses and midwives across the UK in 2023. The project is a companion piece to The Courage of Compassion (2020), a report by The King’s Fund and RCN Foundation which described the core workplace needs of nurses and midwives, and what must be done to meet them.”
We supported The Kings Fund with initial research design and systems setup for journal capture, developing questions and prompts, and ensuring that the nurses and midwives had a clear path to express their thoughts and emotions using simple tools.
“The catalyst for this project is a profound workforce crisis in health and care, and unprecedented numbers of nurses and midwives leaving both professions. One measure of this crisis is the industrial action taken by the Royal College of Nursing, whose members voted for action for the first time in its 106 year history in 2022/23, striking over low pay, poor working conditions and concerns for patient safety.”
One of our favourite parts of the project was the regular group meetings, where we discussed journal entries with the nurses and midwives. These moments enabled us to connect with the participants on a deeper level.
“Follow Your Compassion is, very simply, an attempt to bring the reality of this crisis to life by sharing the everyday lived experiences, thoughts and feelings of newly qualified and registered nurses and midwives.”
While all of this was happening, Emily from Stanley James Press worked on the branding and design: Aesthetic matters, good design draws people into the stories. The zines and website owe their visual appeal to Stanley James Press’s meticulous attention.
As the project reached its culmination, we joined The Kings Fund and the RCNF, spending a day alongside nurses, midwives, and senior leaders in London. We documented the event—filming, photographing and recording audio.
