Monday, 11 June 2007
Nursepower Crisis - Again! (Autumn 2006)
I won't harp on too long about this, but I'd like to get it on record.
Yet again, the NHS - and the UK government - have got their planning wrong, and we have so many 'new' nurses, that many went on the dole last autumn.
And yet, just a few years ago, managers were swanning off to Australia to recruit nurses (passing Australian managers coming to the UK to recruit nurses). Round about the same time, colleges and universities were pressurised to enlarge their intakes.
Of course the plans weren't that wrong; the government long intended to increase the numbers, by enough to avoid decent wage rises - but this time they went too far, and got the bad publicity. But they are managing to hold back wages.
Supply and demand is very effective, and too many nurses does mean national nurse negotiators are weakened, plus the hidden wage cuts, of being able to use an E where an F was required before (substitute numbers from 'Agenda For Crap', if you can remember them).
'New' nurses may rest assured that the glut will not last long - but students should be aware that the future is not bright. What will this year's qualifiers find?
While there is a 'hold' on enticing nurses from developing countries, there is nothing to stop Common Market recruitment, except language. And rumour has it that Polish plumbers will soon be joined by Romanian RNs, Czech cardiac nurses, and, doubtless Maltese matrons and Former-Yugoslav-Republic-of-Macedonian managers - it's only a matter of time.
Don't get me wrong; I have no objection to English-speaking EU nurses, even if their English is not perfect (it's often as good as mine!). EU mobility could be an asset to ALL EU countries (not just the rich ones) , and could give useful and varied experience to individual nurses.
But it would be sweet if the NHS factored these figures into planning, and avoided a situation of wasting student nurse education - not to mention this regular dose of personal misery.
Based on an article written October 2006 ¶ 21:34
Yet again, the NHS - and the UK government - have got their planning wrong, and we have so many 'new' nurses, that many went on the dole last autumn.
And yet, just a few years ago, managers were swanning off to Australia to recruit nurses (passing Australian managers coming to the UK to recruit nurses). Round about the same time, colleges and universities were pressurised to enlarge their intakes.
Of course the plans weren't that wrong; the government long intended to increase the numbers, by enough to avoid decent wage rises - but this time they went too far, and got the bad publicity. But they are managing to hold back wages.
Supply and demand is very effective, and too many nurses does mean national nurse negotiators are weakened, plus the hidden wage cuts, of being able to use an E where an F was required before (substitute numbers from 'Agenda For Crap', if you can remember them).
'New' nurses may rest assured that the glut will not last long - but students should be aware that the future is not bright. What will this year's qualifiers find?
While there is a 'hold' on enticing nurses from developing countries, there is nothing to stop Common Market recruitment, except language. And rumour has it that Polish plumbers will soon be joined by Romanian RNs, Czech cardiac nurses, and, doubtless Maltese matrons and Former-Yugoslav-Republic-of-Macedonian managers - it's only a matter of time.
Don't get me wrong; I have no objection to English-speaking EU nurses, even if their English is not perfect (it's often as good as mine!). EU mobility could be an asset to ALL EU countries (not just the rich ones) , and could give useful and varied experience to individual nurses.
But it would be sweet if the NHS factored these figures into planning, and avoided a situation of wasting student nurse education - not to mention this regular dose of personal misery.
Based on an article written October 2006 ¶ 21:34
