Student Nurse Numbers Boost

Funding has been announced for hundreds more student nurses and midwives in Scotland.

A three percent rise in has been approved for 2015/16, bringing the total to over three thousand.

Meanwhile an extra 450-thousand pounds over three years will be provided for a Return to Practice scheme to encourage up to 75 former nurses and midwives back into the profession every 12 months.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“Our commitment to frontline funding for the NHS is clear. We are increasing the NHS budget, despite Westminster cuts, and we are increasing staffing levels.

“We are not only increasing the numbers of qualified nurses and midwives in our hospitals now, we are also planning for the future.

“That is why we have funded an increase in the number of nurses and midwives in training again this year by a further 3 per cent, on top of the 6 per cent increase the Scottish Government announced last year. This is the kind of careful long term planning and investment our NHS needs.

“There is no doubt that there is pressure on our NHS as it rises to the challenge of dealing with an ageing population. However by working with partners, and investing in the future workforce, we can continue to ensure that our health service provides first class care for generations to come.”

Royal College of Nursing Scotland Associate Director Ellen Hudson said: “While the increase in places for student nurses this year is welcome, the current nursing workforce continues to be under huge strain, trying to cope with increased demand. You just have to look at the recent crises in the health service to know that we haven’t yet got the right nursing workforce in place to cope with all the pressures in our hospitals and out in the community.  

"With the cuts to nursing student intake numbers in 2011/12 and 2012/13 now feeding through and high numbers of nurses retiring, health boards are struggling to ensure they have enough nurses to deliver safe and effective patient care.  The loss of such high numbers of experienced nurses through retirement puts additional pressure on the workforce, so the announcement of additional investment in return to practice programmes which we have been calling on Government to bring in may go some way to address this and will surely be welcomed by those nurses who want to come back into the profession.

“We have been engaged in the development of the new model for determining the number of nurses we need for the future and while the increase  for 2015/16 is another step in the right direction following last year’s increase, we remain concerned that the model for determining the number of nurses needed in the future is based primarily on what the NHS needs, without taking into account the integration of health and social care and the large number of registered nurses working in care homes and outside the NHS.

“We have also expressed our concerns to Government about the short term, annual model for determining how many student nurses we need. Surely it would be more effective to move to a three-year model so health boards, health and social care partnerships and the universities which provide nursing education programmes can plan better in the future?”