NEWLY graduated student nurses have expressed a first preference to work at the Western Trust.
The Trust welcomed the development and confirmed that the level of interest was significantly higher than in previous years.
“This reflects the very positive experience, which students have highlighted during their placements within many service areas in the Trust, and is a testament to the excellent ongoing work by Trust staff across all service areas,” a Western Trust spokesperson said.
This is despite an apparent recruitment freeze in the health service.
A Fermanagh mother spoke to the Herald last week about the worry and stress her daughter and friends are facing due to the fact no jobs are currently available in the north for newly qualified nurses, with many delaying getting their official PIN registration as a result.
However, since the process of allocating student nurses began in June 2024, the Trust said it has seen 110 graduate nurses who have offered/accepted a post.
From those 110 student nurses, the Trust has now provided offers to 100 per cent of those who had highlighted Paediatric services, Learning Disability Services and Midwifery services as their first preference. To date, the Trust has also provided offers to 53 students in Mental Health services and 36 students in Adult services.
“The Trust is also embarking on part two of the strategy to reduce the reliance on agency nursing. Part one was off-contract agency nursing which has been completed and part two will concentrate on contract agency nursing,” the Trust spokesperson added.
“This process will be carefully managed to ensure that clinical teams can continue to provide safe patient care when they reduce the use of agency nursing.
“We anticipate that this process may create some additional employment opportunities that we would also be able to offer to the graduating student nurses.”
In addition to the 110 offers made, further posts will become available for graduates through the annual turnover of staff throughout the year. This will see the total number of posts for graduate students increasing in the months ahead.
All students who have expressed an interest in joining the nursing workforce within the Western Trust have been communicated with.
Recruitment is an ongoing process with the number of vacancies continually changing, the Trust said, and it will continue to work intensively to recruit as many students as possible.
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