Student Nurse Levels To Rise 3%

The number of student nurses and midwives starting training will increase by 3% this year, the Health Secretary has announced.

There will be an extra 608 places for students starting such courses for 2015/16, taking this year's recommended intake to 3,038 students.

The Scottish Government said the new places will sustain the substantial increases'' to the workforce with the number of qualified nurses and midwives increasing by 4.2%, more than 1,700 full time staff, since 2006.

In addition an extra £450,000 over three years will be provided for a Return to Practice scheme to encourage former nurses and midwives back into the profession, enabling around 75 former nurses and midwives to retrain each year and re-enter employment.

Health Secretary Shona Robison announced this year's increase in places during a visit to South Grange Care Home Centre in Dundee where she met with students on placement.

She said: Our commitment to frontline funding for the NHS is clear. We are increasing the NHS budget, despite Westminster cuts, and we are increasing staffing levels.

We are not only increasing the numbers of qualified nurses and midwives in our hospitals now, we are also planning for the future.

That is why we have funded an increase in the number of nurses and midwives in training again this year by a further 3%, on top of the 6% increase the Scottish Government announced last year. This is the kind of careful long term planning and investment our NHS needs.

There is no doubt that there is pressure on our NHS as it rises to the challenge of dealing with an ageing population. However by working with partners, and investing in the future workforce, we can continue to ensure that our health service provides first class care for generations to come.''

The Scottish Government said it is the third successive rise in the number of places for trainee nurses and midwives.

Trade union Unison Scotland welcomed the announcement. Matt McLaughlin, lead nursing organiser, Unison Scotland said: Unison welcomes the Scottish Government's ongoing commitment to increase the number of student nurses trained each year in Scotland, despite continued financial pressure on budgets

Our NHS continues to value professional nurses and midwives and this investment is a measure of that.''

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland associate director Ellen Hudson said: While the increase in places for student nurses this year is welcome, the current nursing workforce continues to be under huge strain, trying to cope with increased demand.

You just have to look at the recent crises in the health service to know that we haven't yet got the right nursing workforce in place to cope with all the pressures in our hospitals and out in the community.

With the cuts to nursing student intake numbers in 2011/12 and 2012/13 now feeding through and high numbers of nurses retiring, health boards are struggling to ensure they have enough nurses to deliver safe and effective patient care.

The loss of such high numbers of experienced nurses through retirement puts additional pressure on the workforce, so the announcement of additional investment in return to practice programmes which we have been calling on Government to bring in may go some way to address this and will surely be welcomed by those nurses who want to come back into the profession.''

She added: We have been engaged in the development of the new model for determining the number of nurses we need for the future and while the increase for 2015/16 is another step in the right direction following last year's increase, we remain concerned that the model for determining the number of nurses needed in the future is based primarily on what the NHS needs, without taking into account the integration of health and social care and the large number of registered nurses working in care homes and outside the NHS.''