This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Nurse recruitment and retention
26/02/2002
The Executive today launched a 'national year of
recruitment and retention' to ensure the NHS in Scotland
can employs more nurses to support planned improvements in
health services.
At the first of six local nursing and midwifery
conventions in Glasgow, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm
announced that he was more than trebling to £5 million
the investment in nurse recruitment and retention
initiatives this year.
The initiatives including:
- an expanded Return to Practice programme to
encourage up to 150 experienced nurses to retrain and
rejoin the NHS, to be implemented in 6 areas of the
country
- 250 more student nurse places in Scotland for the
coming academic year backed by £1.5 million of extra
investment
- a guaranteed minimum of one year's employment in
the NHS for the 1,500 newly qualified nurses and
midwives graduating by October this year
Today's announcements come as a direct result of the
Facing the Future Nursing and Midwifery Convention
held in November.
Mr Chisholm said:
"Nurses and midwives are the heart of the NHS. To the
public they are the visible symbol of the health service
and they play an increasingly valuable role in delivering
changes and improvements in more person-centred care
services.
"No one denies that there are real issues around nurse
and midwife recruitment and retention in the NHS in
Scotland. We need to do more to support the nurses we have
- and we need to match that with a concerted drive to
encourage people into nursing, into midwifery, and into the
NHS.
"Progress has been made in reversing the picture of
falling nurse numbers and reducing student nurse intakes
that were inherited five years ago.
"We have increased the numbers of qualified nurses
employed in Scotland and targeted funding at increasing
specialist nurse posts. We have announced 80 extra nursing
posts, including 35 more at the Beatson, as a result of
investment in our national cancer strategy. As investment
increases there will be more to come.
"We have also driven up student intakes. 10,000 more
nurses and midwives will qualify in Scotland by 2005, 1,500
more than previously planned.
"But we recognise that there is much more still to do.
At the national convention in November we announced funding
of £1.5million for a range of recruitment and retention
activity. I can announce today that we are making an
additional £3.5million available - a total of £5m now to
expand our plans yet further.
"My first priority is to find more nurses to make an
immediate impact on nursing capacity. Clearly, the best
potential source of extra nurses that we know could boost
our capacity immediately are nurse returners.
"I am today pleased to announce that we are going to set
up 6 fully-funded Return to Practice programmes across
Scotland as soon as possible. The first of these will be
here in Glasgow. 40 nurses or health visitors whose
registration has lapsed will receive funding to cover the
cost of their course, travel expenses, books, and in
recognition of the family responsibilities many of these
returners are likely to have, childcare costs. But perhaps
most importantly, they will then be employed for up to 3
months by local NHS Trusts to complete their required
period of practice.
"The six programme sites are spread across the country,
targeted at areas of greatest need. They will cover acute
and primary care settings and the aim will be to achieve at
least 150 returning nurses this year.
"This approach will allow us to ensure that the majority
of these returning nurses and health visitors do actually
end up in employment in NHSScotland - that the investment
makes a difference and represents good value for money.
"Second, we need to get more nurses into training. We
have already increased student nurse intakes. But I believe
we can do more. I have asked the Chief Nursing Officer to
increase intakes by a further 250 for the coming academic
year and I can announce that the Executive has made an
additional £1.5 million from within today's £5 million
available to fund that.
"We also need to look closely at how we maximise value
of this extra intake by minimising the number of students
who, for one reason or another, drop out. The Chief Nursing
Officer Anne Jarvie will make this a central part of her
contract talks with education providers to ensure they
target effective action in this area.
"Finally, we need to make sure that extra student nurses
are translated into more nurses and midwives working within
the NHS. Increasing the number of students and widening
access to pre-registration training through, for example,
cadet schemes are good news in themselves but we want to go
further - to see all those who qualify securing employment
within NHSScotland if they wish.
"We have already announced that we want to guarantee a
year's employment on qualification from Autumn 2002.
Further work is ongoing about the detail of how the
guarantee will work in practice. Our education partners
tell us that there are potentially 1,500 newly qualified
nurses and midwives graduating across Scotland by October.
I want to see the new guarantee applying to them.
"Nursing represents the frontline of patient care.
Nurses care for nearly everyone who uses NHS services. I
have therefore also decided that there should be a nurse
director appointed to the 15 NHS Boards.
"We know that there is more to do. We need more nurses -
both now and in the future. And we need to establish a
clearer picture of nurse workloads through better research.
Increasing the capacity of the NHS is central to our
efforts to improve and modernise services. That is why I
believe we need to see 2002 as a 'national year of
recruitment and retention' for nurses. The year in which we
make a step change in our action. It is a change I want to
achieve in partnership with nurses, midwives, their
representatives, and with education providers."
UNISON Health spokesman Bridget Hunter said:
"We welcome today's initiative, particularly around the
expansion of Return to Practice programmes. We know that
there are a lot of experienced nurses out there who want to
return both to nursing and to the NHS. However, for too
long there have been too many obstacles in their way.
Today's announcement will remove those obstacles and
represents a major step forward in helping nurses return to
the NHS."
The six local conventions are scheduled for Glasgow,
Lothian, Forth Valley, Tayside, Grampian and Borders.
The six Return to Practice pilots will be carried out
in: Glasgow, Lothian, Ayrshire & Arran, Forth Valley,
Fife, and Grampian.