Paul McCartney’s mum was a district nurse… I never knew that.
Did you?
I’m not sure why I’ve told you. It just seemed interesting. I’m not sure why. Some things just are…
… like, I think it’s interesting that NHSE tell us there are 86,000 community nurses working in the NHS. So, that’s alright, then?
No… it’s misleading.
When you pick apart the numbers, they include nearly 30 different types of nurse, across; prison-outreach, school, neurology, heart and occupational health nurses.
They are all important but they’re not doing what Paul’s mum used to do.
According to the Queen’s Nursing Institute, there are about 4,000 actual, district nurses.
There’s quite a lot about nursing that I think is emerging as interesting.
To get on a nursing-degree-course you need… well…
… at least two, usually three A-levels, or three B’s or two B’s and a C, or two C’s and a B… or whatever the university sets as its entry criteria.
Question;
Is it about a level of basic education? Or, is it about basic balance sheets. Making sure the Uni get’s a full-house of hopefuls, willing to stump-up their £9,000 a year.
If that’s interesting, what about this…
I think I’m right in saying there are about 129 universities in the UK, offering nursing degree courses.
There are a number of contradictory league tables telling us which is the best.
One of them rates Cardiff as second best but a closer look tells us only three quarters of the students were satisfied with the course.
Interesting? You figure it out!
Others rate Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow at the top, yet we have three different ones ranked in the global top-ten.
Here’s an interesting thing…
… the Uni’s all have their own curriculum.
So, the overall, interesting picture is; a nurse, can be a nurse, with a varying level of basic educational attainment, having competed a university course, that comes in 129 varieties.
Is it just an interesting question, or too rude to ask; does that seem right? You be the judge.
Here’s something else I think is interesting.
Total applications for nursing courses have risen by 32% to reach 60,130.
And, something more interesting.
According to the Kings Fund the numbers in training are just under 30,000. Only 4k more than in 2005.
Of the 30,000 who didn’t get on a course, I’d be interested to know, how many might have, if they’d applied to a different university, with different entry criteria.
It’s an interesting thought and here’s another one, about doctor training…
… I heard, HMG wrote to the Universities, before Christmas saying institutions would have to foot an annual bill of over £30,000, for each extra student on a clinical training placement, if they went over their pre-Covid allocation of place numbers.
Turns out, it was true.
I thought we needed all the doctors and nurses we can get? Well, we do, but no one wants to pay.
It’s cheaper to spend £12k an head, to bring ward-ready, nurses here, from the Philippines, the largest global-provider of trained nurses.
Which leads me to another interesting fact-cluster;
Covid has taken its toll in the Philippines, nursing conditions are poor and 40% of nurses quit.
Last year, their government sought to ease the crisis by setting up an emergency recruitment scheme, with a 20% salary boost.
The government banned healthcare workers from moving to work overseas. The measure was later replaced with a cap on the number allowed to leave.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to look at a RAG rating on our dependency on overseas nurses?
Interesting? Yes, the whole subject fascinates me.
How is it that such a fundamental and important part of our workforce, it’s recruitment and training, can be so… what shall I say… cobbled together? Un-coordinated.
Who is in charge?
- HEE
- Universities
- Trusts
- Royal Colleges
- NHSE
- DH+,
- HMT,
- HMG,
- the Cabinet Office
- the bloke down the chip shop, who thinks he’s Elvis?
Whose feet do we hold to the fire?
Who is in charge of getting enough nurses onto the wards, with the right education and the right qualifications?
Who is the can-carrier? Do they have a name?
The Uni’s are making-up their bit, making sure they make as much as they can from hopeful student’s and their £9k a year.
HEE are watching them do it.
The Trusts are picking up the pieces and no one wants to pick up the bill.
The answer is, no one is in charge and that is why it’s so ‘interesting’… which is grandiloquence for… a &$@@&^ mess.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
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