In 2013 LaLite talked of 3,000 more nurses. Somewhere I read there will be 5,000. Do the maths; 5k nurses for 400 hospitals = 12.5 a Trust. Covering three shifts a day = 4-ish, spread over an average of 30 wards per Trust... I make that a bit of a nurse will be coming to work on a ward near you. I'm not sure which bit or when.
Nursing is a fluid workforce subject to high level of churning... coming and going. About 8%.
Keeping nurses, keeping them happy, keeping them up to date and where necessary 'keeping them Mum', is a key priority. Getting them into the profession and getting them to return are equal challenges.
I met an ex nurse working at M&S. She had taken advantage of a 'cut the wages bill' initiative. Now she has a pension, a job she loves and buys, as she put it, 'her knickers at a discount'. She misses her old job and thought about returning. The palaver was unbelievable (450 hours of registered practice and 35 hours of learning activity, sign a declaration and provide references). I didn't like to hack her off by letting on a complete stranger can walk into a job in a care-home. No registration and no qualifications.
Why bother and anyway, she can fit her M&S hours around the time she needs to look after her elderly mum and any way; there was no local University offering the return to practice course.
There's a lesson. Flexible working is important to a predominately female workforce running a family life; scheduling flexibility a number one priority and child care, often, number two, for men and women.
As is 'decompression time'. The exigencies of working at the front line, the sights the sounds, the emotional roller coaster that is the workaday. Do you take it home? Park it? Let it fester and corrode. Bring it back the next day. Are you shaped by it, annealed by it or destroyed by it... helping nurses to decompress makes a difficult job bearable but is seldom done. Listening to nurses, hearing their voices, understanding what they say is a skill and talent beyond only but the best managers.
The frontline is where the complaints come from, the cuts felt the deepest, bad practice emanates and the good stuff struggles to be noticed. Of course some nurses have an axe to grind but the majority has a point to make; usually well-made and strikes home. Creating listening time, listening space and listening places, takes courage and time to forge partnerships.
The best managers know their role is to create the time and space for talented people to display their talents.
Years ago I was involved in an ACAS survey of nurses; 'what did they really want'. They rated career development and training above a pay rise. Wow! That's no reason to think you can pay nurses less than the going rate but it told us nurses want to be good, better and excellent at what they do. A willing workforce, willing to do more and better.
The workforce crisis is not restricted to nurses. There are not enough of any health professionals. Nurses and nurse specialists can help to relieve the pressure but we have to be quick, nimble and fast if we are to catch up with demand, keep pace with demographics and get ahead of the game.
A refreshed, high-profile, national 'come home to nursing' campaign, funded and organised on a national scale; nursing refresher courses, bursaries, high profile champions, education grants and a national 'please' might... but it might be too late. Trust bosses say they know exactly how many nurses they need but the Uni's won't commission the places.
Oh, and maybe the NMC will see the light and consider new ways of enticing former nurses to return to practice, a competency test, rather than a return-to-practice course. like they do for overseas nurses!
There are not enough nurses; importing them is a temporary fix. The CQC shouting fixes nothing. How many times have I written; 'protect the front-line, fund it properly and make it fun to work there'.
I doubt this is the last time I'll say it.
