Time to shine: Successful nurse recruitment campaign

Time to shine Hundreds of nurses welcomed to our hospital over the last six months in successful recruitment drive

Following a dedicated campaign focused on recruiting a host of amazing nurses to join our hospital, we are now on target to have less than a 10% nursing vacancy rate overall by the end of this financial year.

nurses joined our hospital.

Previously, around six or seven nurses joined our hospital per month, which did not fill the posts of those who were retiring or moving on to new opportunities.

The programme begun last summer – when the vacancy rate for staff nurses (band five) was 41%. This had been a longstanding challenge at PAHT. A high vacancy rate impacts on both our patients and our people, as nurses on our wards will have less time to spend with each patient. To improve the experience for our patients and our people, Sharon McNally, director of nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals, and Sarah Webb, deputy director of nursing, devised a strategy to rapidly increase the recruitment of amazing staff nurses to join our teams across the hospital. A key focus of this work was to recruit significantly more overseas nurses, beginning with a recruitment drive in India in July 2019. Sarah, and colleagues from theatres, ITU, Fleming and Ray Wards visited Cochin in India to interview nurses who were keen to work in the UK. Over four days they interviewed more than 200 nurses and made 132 offers. Just three months later, the first four Since last summer, we have been welcoming between 20 to 30 new nurses per month. A range of measures have supported this:

Introducing a requirement that all overseas nurses who are offered a position at our hospital have already obtained their English language qualifications and are in the process of getting approval from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to convert to UK registration. This has significantly reduced the time from making an offer of employment to our new nurses beginning in their posts. This is with the aim that all nurses begin with us in six months of receiving their offer. Ideally, and frequently, this time period is three months. Redesigning the process for candidates of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), which is part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration process for nurses and midwives trained outside of the European Union, so that it is more streamlined and enables overseas nurses to concentrate on passing their OSCE before joining their ward teams Ensuring that clinical support is available on wards from four new clinical practice educators so that our new nurses are given the help they need to become established in their roles, which in turns aids retention of our people Offering a package of support, led by Maria Mantziou, our recruitment and retention nurse lead, to help them settle into living and working in Harlow

As of this month (February 2020), we now have a 12.7% vacancy rate for staff nurses and we are on track to achieve our less than 10% vacancy rate target for staff nurses – and 10% overall – by the end of March 2020.

With increased numbers of substantive posts filled, we are working with our wards and departments to help embed the new nurses into their new roles. The reduced vacancy rate has the added positive impact of decreasing our turnover rate, as colleagues are more likely to enjoy their working environment

when they are working in a settled team. We have also seen this reflected in an increase in the number of student nurses who apply for roles here once they qualify.

Additionally, we are continuing to work with our healthcare assistants (HCAs) to help them develop in their roles and work towards achieving registered nurse (RN) status. You can read more about this on page five.

We recognise that there is still work to do to reduce our vacancy rate as much as possible and in particular recruiting to some of our specialist areas, including midwifery.

Sharon McNally, director of nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals, said:

It has been fantastic to welcome our new nurses to our hospital and we have been delighted to hear the positive feedback from our teams about the effect significantly reducing the nursing vacancy rate has had in our wards and departments.

Maintaining this high level of recruitment and supporting retention of our nurses remains a key focus throughout this year as we work to continually improve.

Maria Mantziou, recruitment and retention nurse

Maria Mantziou, recruitment and retention nurse joined PAHT last August to help support the delivery of our overseas nursing Swathi John - Tye Green Ward.

Dare Akintobi - Gibberd Ward.

recruitment programme. The programme allows the nurses to gain the correct qualifications to work in the UK and at PAHT.

Before joining us, Maria worked at The Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge for five years as a recruitment and retention nurse, she has a clinical nursing background with experience in anaesthetics and intensive care. Maria is now undertaking her Master’s degree in HR.

When speaking with Maria about the overseas nursing programme she said:

The programme allows us to provide a fantastic opportunity for overseas nurses whilst gaining further support for our current nursing workforce.

Welcoming our new nurses

My role is challenging yet very rewarding; we provide a very supportive and diverse environment, so it’s great to see our latest cohort of nurses settle in well and progress in their career.

Maria Mantziou.