NHS Employers has called on hospital and primary care trusts to invest in more training and professional development for nurses as the NHS is restructured.
Writing in the Nursing Times, NHS Employers director Steve Barnett said that trusts and other NHS organisations needed to have excellent HR practices to support nurses through health service reorganisation.
“This includes investment in training and professional development, and could also include providing access to careers advice or change-management workshops,” he said.
It was reported earlier this month that there would be a shortage of 14,000 nurses in the NHS by 2011.
“Employers should be looking at innovative ways to create job opportunities for newly qualified nursing graduates, perhaps by offering part-time or bank posts until permanent full-time posts can be identified,” said Barnett.
Sunderland Teaching PCT won the top nursing employer’s award in the magazine.
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Staff praised the trust’s management ethos, saying it made nurses feel properly valued and supported.
