Housing laws make nurse recruitment ‘even harder’
Thursday 14th October 2010, 2:29PM BST.
FINANCIAL challenges are an issue with every health authority, according to the Royal College of Nursing’s president.
Problems with recruitment are common, too, said Maura Buchanan, and an island with a separate health service was bound to find it particularly challenging.
Not everybody wanted to live on an island, she said, and the housing licence policy made it harder yet.
‘I can understand the need for control on an attractive island like this, but you have to look at what it does for nursing in Guernsey as you want to recruit the best people and be able to keep them here,’ said Ms Buchanan (pictured).
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I am afraid Maura Buchanan is wide of the mark. First of all Nurses who live in HSSD accommodation do NOT require licenses and incidentally it is in this accommodation where the biggest turnover of staff occurs. Secondly HSSD has not been refused a license where it has applied for one for several years. Thirdly the Deputy Minister for Health said this morning on BBC radio that Licenses were not the issue it was manifestly a shortage of qualified nursing staff.
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I’m a nurse at the PEH. It is absolutely NOT the licensing issue which has an impact on recruitment and retention, it’s the wages compared with the cost of living. Plain and simple. I have a 5 year licence, which is three years longer than I need.
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Train the local talent, we’ve known about this for years and there has been no effort from Education or HSSD to train locals. Easy option is get an Englishman or a Philipino.
Stop whining and look closer to home. If you can’t then you shouldn’t be in position.
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Is there no way we could encourage our young people to train as nurses and teachers and then positively discriminate to get them back home?
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This problem would seem to exist throughout the developed world and is not confined to Guernsey. Many medical staff in the UK are recruited from across the world as demand exceeds supply of local (qualified) talent. Similarly other developed nations poach UK qualified staff (Australia etc) As many of the post above mention we need to train more locally qualified medical staff, however this will not stop some from moving to a perceived better job in the UK or abroad which may broaden the experience or provide opportunities for the employee.
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They do train nurses locally – just not very many! I think the number who drop out is high but perhaps the press could check that out? The ones that have just qualified had trouble getting jobs – because the wards needed nurses with experience and didnt have enough nurses to look after these new recruits. The other problem with training locally is that they are not allowed access to HSSD accommodation – which is now full not only with nurses but locum doctors, physios, lab techs, and domestics. Most student want some freedom – not living at home with mum and dad – that is why university is so popular. Perhaps it would be cheaper for health to subsidise students training in the UK instead of training here ? What about training our own midwives, physiotherapists, lab technicians, xray technicians etc etc
There is not a shortage of general nurses in the UK. There are major redundancies so the pool to choose from should be widening, but they don’t want to come here unless they are single. Coming with the family means uprooting everyone and they would also have to work full time as working on a licence does not allow part-time hours. As ‘Nurse’ says above, people will be given 5 year licences to live outside HSSD accommodation but only (generous) rent allowance for 2 years – then they go. Locals get nothing to help them pay rent or mortgage and there is bad feeling about that. At least the licence holders i.e. those living in local market accommodation are highly subsidised for 2 years (they even have their legal fees paid if they choose to buy). They sell at a profit so do not lose money. Nurses living in HSSD accommodation can live there forever if they want as long as they don’t have children. There are flats for married nurses as long as they don’t have children but again they are not available to local nurses.
I know nurses who did want to stay after 5 years but were not supported by managers – even though they were good nurses and even some had worked on hard to recruit areas . It isn’t fair to blame housing – look at the senior management at the hospital and the human resources department who are often woefully inadequate.
It is about pay compared to the cost of living and also the stresses of having to work under ever increasing stress with bed cuts, staff cuts and no resident doctors – something that is just not expected by nurses coming from UK or overseas. This should be a fantastic opportunity for nurses and we should have them queuing up to come here. Money is being thrown at some nurses but they still don’t stay – and meanwhile the local nurses are keeping the system working without any perks, becoming increasingly demoralised.
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@ Horice Camp, the nurses who train locally are contracted to stay for 2 years after finalising their training. – however this is not usually enforced. Many students do not come back to work in Guernsey as our hospital is smaller & does not offer the same opportunities for experience & are at risk of de-skilling themselves.
Overseas HSSD nurses/midwives are offered a financial relocation package from HSSD, & then if living in local market accomodation the rent is heavily subsidised for the first two years as mentioned above.
However, when a nurse/midwive etc. is local but has been living & working (and usually trained) in the UK she misses out on any finanical relocation package – why is this? Has she/he not also had to pay for flights & relocate belongings too?
As a nurse myself, I have no problem with recruiting staff from overseas or enticing them with a relocation package or low rent – afterall HSSD cannot run without qualified staff. The problem comes, when the same enhancements are not given to the local staff.
Another problem with recruiting local staff is the issue of training. I have seen many local nurses miss out on further education (degree pathway courses, speicalist area training) in favour for overseas nurses with short licenses.
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