The Nursing and Midwifery Council today (3 August) issued Spotlight on Nursing and Midwifery, a new annual report. Commenting on the report Eileen McKenna, Associate Director, RCN Scotland, said:
“The NMC’s report underlines many of the issues we’ve raised repeatedly. Nurses at all stages of their nursing career journey need far better support to provide the quality of care they want to and continue in the profession.
“Our nursing students face serious financial hardship making them consider leaving their course, as our recently published report showed. The cost-of-living crisis, lack of opportunities to supplement their income and long delays in being reimbursed for expenses on clinical placements are creating a financial black hole. The Scottish government must boost the financial package for nursing students and establish a regular review of the level of support to make sure it rises in line with the cost of living.
“Internationally recruited nurses are invaluable to our health and care services, but their numbers are small in the context of our workforce crisis and the process of recruitment and induction is not speedy. Those who do want to come to nurse in Scotland must be properly supported through the specific challenges associated with coming to work in a new country, and not attracted to Scotland simply to fill gaps.
“While national frameworks and guidelines on preceptorship can be useful, active preceptorship with a more experienced professional is invaluable for newly qualified nurses. We want to see the level of support available significantly improved.
“The NMC’s report provides more evidence why the Scottish government’s focus must be on efforts to stop our experienced staff leaving and making nursing an attractive and rewarding career choice. The Ministerial Nursing and Midwifery taskforce is the Cabinet Secretary’s opportunity to act, to tackle the nursing workforce crisis and to develop the sustainable nursing workforce Scotland needs."
