- Conference
- 2022 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 10 December 2021
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that UNISON branches have been dealing with the effects of staffing shortages for years but over the last 2 years there have been massive shortages of registered nurses across all specialties. This puts patient care at risk
Conference believes that there is an urgent need for more registered nursing staff.
Given that there is a global shortage of registered nursing staff and the effects that both the pandemic and BREXIT have had on the ability and willingness of people to relocate internationally, this needs to be addressed within the 4 countries of the UK and the NMC.
Conference welcomes the multi-disciplinary team approach which involves nursing staff at Bands 2,3 and 4 and has provided training, development and a career pathway up to the Band 4 level.
However, this does not substitute for the need for registered nurses.
Sadly at this point, a highly skilled member of staff would only be able to become registered by leaving their substantive post to become a full time student to get the qualification at degree level. For many of our members, they simply can’t take this step for financial and personal reasons.
Conference further believes that in the current climate we need to make things easier for highly experienced members of the nursing team to achieve the qualifications required for registration. In addition to this, we require vastly larger numbers of places on pre-registration courses across all nursing disciplines both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels while continuing to maintain their employment. This is important to prevent the dilution of skill mix.
Conference re-affirms existing Health Conference policy that NMAHP students should be salaried rather than receive bursaries and/or student loans whilst on full time courses to become registered.
We believe that a radical rethink of NMAHP training is required to meet the demands of a service which was under stress even before COVID.
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to work with the National Nursing Sector Committee to build a case for change that can be used to lobby the NMC, Higher Education, NHS Employers and ultimately the Government to make changes to how we deliver Nursing Pre-registration courses which support wider career development of currently unregistered nursing staff and provide more funded places for pre-registration courses to achieve ‘registrant’ status.