The taskforce will provide Michael Matheson MSP, the new Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, with an opportunity to hear directly from RCN Scotland and other key nursing and midwifery stakeholders. Secured by the RCN as a direct result of the College’s mandate for strike action and calls for action on the nursing workforce crisis, the taskforce will make a series of recommendations to address the current staff shortages and ensure a sustainable nursing workforce in the longer term.
It will consider actions to support the retention and development of existing nursing staff and to encourage more people to consider a career in nursing. The taskforce proposals include a commitment to engaging with and listening to nursing staff in both health and social care, to understand the unique challenges they face.
We believe this is key to unlocking solutions, improving outcomes for those being cared for and ensuring Scotland has the nursing workforce it needs for the future.
At the end of 2022 over 8% of nursing and midwifery posts were unfilled in Scotland’s NHS alone, including over 4,000 registered nurse posts. We have consistently said publicly and to the Scottish government that staff shortages are impacting on the safety and quality of care and the wellbeing and morale of nurses and nursing support workers.
The recent Audit Scotland review of the NHS in Scotland stated that addressing the workforce crisis is key for NHS recovery.
Colin Poolman, Director, RCN Scotland, said: “Scotland simply doesn’t have the registered nurses and nursing support workers it needs and patients and care home residents are suffering as a result. The Scottish government’s steps to address the workforce crisis haven’t delivered. We need to act now to stop more experienced nursing staff leaving the profession and to attract the workforce of the future.
“Your views and experiences and those of other nursing staff, those studying nursing and those considering nursing as a career, will be essential in informing and shaping what is actually required to guarantee nursing becomes a career of choice once again.
“The Cabinet Secretary must ensure the taskforce delivers funded, timely and meaningful actions to retain nursing staff, to address the unsustainable level of vacancies, to expand routes into nursing and ultimately to grow Scotland’s nursing workforce to ensure the profession can meet the health and care needs of the people of Scotland today and in the future.”
