New dedicated Nurse and Midwife training centre in Reading

Thames Valley University, now the University of West London, has opened a new nursing and midwifery training hub in Reading. Fountain House will support 1,600 trainee nurses and midwives with lecture rooms, a library, internet access and learning support services. These facilities used to be available at the Slough campus of TVU, which has now closed.

According to Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Andrew MacCallum: “The new facility strengthens our partnership with the NHS in Berkshire and it matches the needs of our students for study and entry into the workplace.”

Are you studying at the University of West London’s Reading Campus? Let us know if you are, and tell us what it’s like there.

Focus on Occupational Health Nursing Jobs

This month on Nurses.co.uk we’ve been focusing on Occupational Health Nursing Jobs and raising awareness of occupational health as a specialism in nursing. Occupational Health Nurses are key to providing frontline healthcare services in the workplace. It’s common that they will perform pre-employment checks before an employee is taken on and will regularly perform workspace checks to ensure a safe working environment is maintained.

We’ve found that Occupational Health Nursing and Occupational Therapy are two specialisms that can sometimes be confused. Our article on the subject looks at the main differences between the two specialisms and highlights the fact that an Occupational Therapist is not a trained nurse and vice versa. Occupational therapy is the practice of designing routines and activities that assist people in rehabilitation to accomplish their daily tasks. It’s quite a different role to occupational health nursing.

We’ve also been looking at the Occupational Health Nursing Jobs available in the NHS and Private Sectors.  There are wide range of opportunities for occupational health nurses in both sectors, both commanding a starting salary of around £21.5K. OH Nurses working in the NHS may find themselves contracted into the private sector if a company is outsourcing its occupational health department.

Most recently we’ve examined the role of the Occupational Health Nurse and the Human Resources Team in an effort to better understand how the two departments can work towards saving an organisation money by reducing employee absence.

Click on any of the links in this blog to view the articles in full.

Survey Results: Definite thumbs down to NHS Nurses pay freeze

We recently conducted a survey of Nurses and Midwives working in the NHS, and found that an overwhelming of 93% of those that answered disagreed with the pay freeze. Despite some of those that disagreed accepting it was necessary, it’s still going to have a massive impact for hundreds of thousands of workers.

By the end of the two years that the pay freeze is in effect, a top level band 3 staff member will be earning only £2K less than a newly qualified nurse who started at the first pay point in band 5. This has left some people questioning whether this has devalued nurse training even further.

Of the nurses and midwives that replied to our survey, over 60% expect to experience financial difficulties over the next two years as a direct result of the pay freeze. And as for the pension review, there is a common feeling that the retirement age will be increased, contributions will be increased and final salary pension schemes will be scrapped.

You can read the article in full here, but feel free to leave your comments here and let me know how the pay freeze will affect you.

Survey results show Nurses are willing to give the Government a chance

A recent survey by Nurses.co.uk showed increasing support from Nurses for the coalition government, despite the majority still feeling that the standard of care will be lower than under Labour.

480 Nurses and Midwives responded to the survey, and 142 of them felt that the standard of care would decrease. However, just under 100 respondents felt that the standard of care would actually increase under the coalition government. Prior to the election, the majority support was definitely for Labour.

It may be that the  increasing level of support for the newly election Cameron-Clegg partnership is due to their apparent commitment to cut inefficiency, reduce spending but maintain staffing numbers. Only 48 of those that completed the survey believed that NHS spending would actually increase, however 220 responses showed overwhelming faith that frontline services would eventually begin to improve once savings in other areas were made.

The clear message from Nurses and Midwives is that ward staffing levels need to be addressed urgently. Just under 50% of all responses showed that this issues is foremost in the minds of frontline staff members, who feel overworked and under increasing pressure (according to nurses who’ve given us feedback directly).

So it would appear that there is a clear message here – increase staff numbers and make sure standards of care continue to improve.

Newly Qualified Nurse and still struggling for a Nursing Job?

Are you in that dreaded position where you’ve just celebrated becoming a qualified nurse but you don’t have a job lined up? Don’t panic, grab a cuppa, sit down and we can go through it together.

This is going to sound easier said than done, but if you can just hold your nerve, you CAN get the nursing position you really want. The moment you give in to desperation it will only lead further into desperation and you’ll be a nervous wreck.

So what can you do? Ok, first of all let’s pretend you have been in your first nursing position for 6 months and it’s time for a change. What area is it you really want to go into? What skills are you interested in acquiring? What I’m trying to say is be selective with your job hunting. Make a list of jobs you want to apply for in order of priority, and keep it to a maximum of 10 for the time being.

The next thing to look at is are these jobs in several different specialities, are they all general nursing roles, are they care home or ward based etc? Each different job will require a slightly different CV and application, highlighting your different skills sets. There’s nothing wrong with applying to several different areas as long as you take the time to make your application tailored to that specialism. You can see an example nursing CV here, you should follow it and adjust your CV according to the position you are applying for.

So the next task is your personal statement & covering letter. Your personal statement is such an important aspect of your job application. Be clear, concise and don’t be afraid to say why you’re the right person for the role. You should draw the recruiter’s attention to the key skills you have for this job, the placement experience you have in that specialism from your course and your excellent work ethic and commitment. This is the chance to really sell your skills. Once you have the kick-ass personal statement, summarise the key areas in your covering letter. If you can, call the contact on the job advert first and have an informal discussion about the role. That way, when your application arrives, they might remember you and whether you were personable and polite on the phone. Always a plus!

Once you’ve proof read it to death (that means at least twice!) then it’s ready to go. Check on the job advert how you’re meant to send the application, if it’s by email make sure you check you’ve got the address correct. You can always call the next day to check it has been received.

So that’s the first one away. Now go back to your job list and assess the next job. Do you need to change your personal statement to fit more with the person requirements of this job? Does your CV need to make a bigger priority of some experience that you’ve moved lower down for the previous job you applied for? If the answer is yes, or even maybe, then you need to go through all of the above again to make sure you have the perfect tailored application.

It’s a very labour intensive process, but if you can do this for all 10 positions you picked out, you have 10 out of 10 of the best chances possible of getting an interview. Remember, the application gets you the interview, the interview gets you the job. So do your research on current issues, procedures, policy, recent news stories, and make sure you practice your responses to the difficult questions you know they will ask such as ” What weaknesses will you have to overcome in this role?”. They’re not trying to catch you out, they are seeing if you have an analytical view of your skills and the motivation to improve on any areas you feel are lacking.

Above all they are looking to hire a person, not a robot, so personal experiences, reflections, challenges you overcame during your nursing course could all be relevant – just be sure you don’t waffle.

Good luck everyone – and remember, there is a job out there that is crying out for you to apply, so don’t just bung off standard applications.

We asked – you replied, here’s what should be posted in every nursing job ad!

A massive thank you and pat on the back to everyone who responded to our request for feedback about online nursing and healthcare job ads. For anyone who missed out, here’s a bit of background: we’re trying really hard to get nursing recruiters and employers to be more open with the details in the their job ads, so you the candidates, can make the most informed decision about whether to apply for a position or not.

I’m happy to say that an impressive 186 of you felt passionately enough about this issue to contribute, and I’m happy to reveal your top 10 items of info that should be disclosed in every job ad (in order of importance).

1. Full and accurate job title
2. Salary
3. Working hours
4. Exact location
5. Job status (whether permanent or temporary)
6. Good, accurate job description
7. Person specification
8. Information about the company
9. Benefits
10. Professional registration required (eg NMC PIN)

You also told us that without an accurate salary, the exact location of the post, the full job title or the working hours stated in the advert, a whopping 50% of you wouldn’t apply.

This feedback is hugely important for us, and we’re really grateful to everyone who participated. We’ve mailed all our recruiters to let them know what you think so you can rest assured you’re efforts have not been in vain.

Better dementia training for nurses is needed according to new report

The Alzheimer’s Society has published a report entitled ‘Counting the Cost, caring for people with dementia on hospital wards’ in which it states that patients with dementia are staying in hospital far longer than those without dementia who are admitted for the same treatment.

Patients with dementia occupy a quarter of all hospital beds, and the study of 2,400 people found that these patient’s endure longer stays in hospital which affects their mental and physical state in such a way that the majority leave hospital in a worse condition. Just over a third of patients left hospital to go to a care home unable to return home because their condition had deteriorated so much.

The report also calls for more specialist training for nurses in the care of dementia patients. The results of the study show that 89% of nurses questioned found caring for dementia patients “very or quite challenging”. The RCN supports the findings and is backing the recommendation for more training to be made available and calling the situation “simply unacceptable”.

The real reasons for the shortage of UK Midwives

A recent survey by nurses.co.uk has revealed that the real issues behind the shortage of midwives in the UK include pay, long working hours, and access to jobs due to qualification criteria, as well as positions being filled by nurses from overseas.

Despite the fact that 88% of UK registered midwives that answered the survey said they had experienced a shortage of midwives and that this staff deficit put the lives of patients at risk, the feedback clearly suggested that the issues were not as simple as the jobs being there with no midwives to fill them.

Core concerns were raised around salaries vs. working hours, in conjunction with cost and staff cutting exercises having a significant impact on the expectations of nurses and midwives. With an increasing amount of pressure placed on those in current positions, dissatisfaction and frustration in the workplace is on the rise, as organisations and teams are expected to manage bigger patient demands with fewer high-quality staff. Comments included a need for better working conditions, more realistic workloads and more support from senior colleagues.

Qualifications, conversions and bursaries also came up as key challenges, with many finding the route to becoming a qualified midwife or staying registered as one, progressively more difficult. Nearly 70% of survey participants felt that proposals to increase the bursary available for midwifery students would encourage more prospective entrants to enrol. However, others felt that the tough interview process for applicants reduced the motivation for nurses to pursue this route and the eighteen month conversion needed for midwifery following an adult nursing degree, further reduced the qualification rate and increased barriers to professional positions.

Once qualified, further obstacles to securing a job included lengthy paperwork and processes, issues and fears around litigation (errors in maternity care are by far the biggest contributor to medical negligence payouts), lack of flexibility and in some areas, a straightforward lack of bank and agency jobs. Comments from some of the survey participants also highlighted experience of losing out to nurses and midwives from overseas. Whilst nursing and midwifery is no longer on the official ‘job shortage’ list, which often promotes an influx of professionals from abroad, there has been feedback to support the case that nursing jobs are still being assigned to those who are moving from or within the EU.

Nurses.co.uk CEO, Matt Farrah commented:

“My understanding is that some of the rules on attracting midwives from EU/EEA countries have been relaxed. However, I don’t know if there is real, evidential information anywhere to back this up. Agencies have told me directly that they have found it simple to bring in midwives from Germany, Scandinavia, France and Italy and that they feel it’s easy because the Government acknowledges we are short on skills ourselves. Whether gaps being filled by overseas recruitment are due to a shortage of skills and/or the issues revealed in the survey remains to be seen.”

66% Of Nurses.co.uk Users Say “no” To Govt’s Individual Insurance Scheme

Nurses.co.uk – Press Release

The nursing jobs web site, www.Nurses.co.uk, has reported that 66% of UK nurses disagreed with the Government’s proposed individual insurance scheme that placed liability with the individual.

Under the scheme, now withdrawn following criticism, each nurse would have been expected to buy their own insurance annually at a cost of approximately £500 per annum.

The RCN disagreed with the proposal, suggesting that business would become more heavily involved in healthcare provision as responsibility shifted from employers of nurses to insurance companies.

However, the results may indicate that there is some sympathy with the proposal and that while the proposal has been withdrawn pending a review in conjunction with the RCN, it could be eventually be supported by UK Nurses.

The majority of nurses thought that either way, it wasn’t likely to have an effect on the standards of care.