2010 is well underway...

It's April already!

We can't believe we're already six months through our one year, one off tour with the RCN Student Bus.

We've had a couple of quiet months with a few weeks off in the late winter as we recovered from the snow and started making plans for the better weather!

One of our most notable visits recently was to The House of Lords to lobby MPS to sign up to our Nursing Counts campaign and express their support for nursing in the UK. We had over 70 MPs visit us on the day including David Cameron and Nick Clegg! Gordon Brown was unfortunately out of the country but it was a fantastic day and our four students worked so hard in the chilly weather.

We've been shopping we last wrote and now have chairs to put out under the awning on sunnier days so that we can chat to visitors both on and off the bus, before you know it we'll be installing picnic tables and an ice-cream machine - we are so excited about the summer! Although the small temperature rises so far have proven that the bus can heat up incredibly quickly so we'll need to get the water machine fixed soon.

Our tour visits for the rest of the year are picking up and we're really pleased to have our first dates using the bus as an exhibition stand at the NEC in Birmingham, there are very few exhibition halls we would be able to fit into so we're very much looking forward to this.

The poor bus has had some bumps recently so the vinyl wrap on the outside has been given some attention to clear up some of our edges, it's amazing what some 'go faster' stripes from Halfords can do!

We're happy to confirm that we are definitely taking the bus to Northern Ireland! We'll be there for around two weeks and one of us in threatening to canoe just to get a picture of the bus on the ferry!

The bus is now open to all and everyone so we're attending a lot more hospital sites, these days still tend to be quieter than university days so we're trying to work on our marketing strategy, maybe it's not obvious how informal a bus visit can be? If you're in the area, the bus will be at the Holiday Inn hotel in Chatham on Thursday 22nd so please pop in and say hello.

Otherwise we'll hope to see you at RCN Congress in Bournemouth the following week!