The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is celebrating its 1st cohort of Registered Nurse Degree Apprentices, who have completed their nursing qualifications in partnership with The Open University.
Like many other NHS organisations across the country, the Trust has found it challenging to recruit enough nursing professionals to fill vacancies, so this new programme was designed in collaboration with The Open University to increase the number of Registered Nurses and Nursing Associates on the Island.
22 Registered Nurses are graduating this year. They are a combination of part-time apprentices recruited on a 4-year Registered Nurse degree training programme in 2018 and full-time apprentices who began a 3-year Registered Nurse degree training programme in 2019.
All 22 apprentices have met the qualification requirements to successfully register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, providing them with the license to practise within specialisms in adult, mental health and learning disabilities.
The Trust’s collaboration with The Open University to deliver both apprenticeship programmes, with course fees fully funded by the Trust’s Apprenticeship Levy, has proven very successful.
This well-established career pathway has enabled people living on the Island to attain the vital skills to deliver effective, safe and responsive nursing care in and across a wide range of health and care settings.
It has helped to increase the number of Registered Nurses and Nursing Associates recruited to the Trust, with a total of 70 nursing apprentices, currently on track to qualify on 1 of the 2 programme pathways.
Juliet Pearce, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and AHPs Isle of Wight NHS Trust, has said:
“It’s a delight to see our apprentices qualify as registered nurses, they are a key part of the multidisciplinary teams that meet the health and care needs of patients and service users on the Island.
“The Open University learning model works well for our nursing apprentices, with blended learning and it is extremely flexible. Being an island, not everybody can commit to travel to mainland universities.
“So, the distance learning and the support from the Open University allows staff to stay on the Island and learn and train. That’s why the model from the Open University works so well for us.”
Donna Parkinson, Head of Learning, Education and Development at the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said:
“We are incredibly proud to see our first groups of Registered Nurse Degree Apprentices and Nursing Associate Higher Apprentices qualify through this flexible training route.
“We had an extraordinary amount of interest in applications and enquiries on these courses and are delighted to see so many people qualifying and working towards achieving their career goals.
“Working in partnership with our colleagues at The Open University to provide crucial training has helped to widen access and boost the skills shortage for registered and associate nurses on the Island.
“This is a key part of our resourcing and recruitment strategy, helping to address some of the barriers to nursing, such as cost and a lack of bursary, which made attending university prohibitive. This training pathway has unlocked the career path of nursing to all.”
For further information on applying for the next group of nursing associates and registered nursing apprenticeships visit https://www.iow.nhs.uk/Working-With-Us/learning-zone/apprenticeships-2.htm.
Brilliant. Who said St Marys are not on par with the mainland? This shows they are way ahead.
Congratulations, but I must say I preferred Nurses of old.
It used to be a calling, sadly now it’s all about a Degree, job for life, great pension and
plenty of overtime.
I expect red arrows because many people have no idea the way it used to be back in the olden days.
Bring back the Matron and Cancel Bank Nursing, it’s bleeding the NHS dry.
Also put a Cap on Sick pay.
Sick pay is abused to the max, not all ‘angels’ I can tell you.
Agencies are bleeding the NHS dry not the nursing bank which is in house and pays standard NHS rates.
Privately owned agencies are exploiting the shortage of health professionals created by a reduction in training places and the exodus of EU staff following Brexit.
Many of the private agencies donate money to the tory party and/or have tory MPs as directors or owners.
There are around 700,000 Registered Nurses in the UK according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, they are not a homogenised mass all with the same characteristics.
The pension is not nearly as generous as it used to be and 50,000 vacancies for registered nurses indicate NHS pay and conditions are not attractive.
In addition the changes to the pensions scheme is prompting many experienced nurses and midwives to leave. Basically they will be moved onto the new system in 2023 and, although they won’t lose their benefits accrued under the old scheme, staying does little to improve their pensions under the 2023 scheme.
So, given the poor working conditions, real-terms pay cuts and the frequent abuse they get, they are leaving the profession.
We have already seen NHS dental care effectively abolished. It’s still there in name but, as nobody can find an NHS dentist, it is effectively privatised.
GP services are almost at the same stage.
All in the plan.
The NHS is on it’s knees. 1 in 10 posts are unfilled and staff are leaving at an increasing rate. The Government reaction to nurses striking is to, effectively, ban strikes. Given that most are looking on the strike as a last-ditch attempt to make their job viable, it doesn’t take genius to work out that this will just increase the exodus. If the Government doesn’t throw the nurses a bone with some decent meat on it, the NHS will be gone in 4 years and we’ll be looking at a US style healthcare system where treatment is based on ability to pay.
Good luck getting health insurance you can afford at your age.
wouldn’t need so many nurses if we didn’t allow the world to access the NHS for free and carry out pointless surgeries, such as lipo and gender reassignment.
Also – if the general population weren’t burdened with so many hypochondriacs, sick notes, layabouts, junkies, alco’s and other deadbeat benefit spongers, that routinely turn up at the hospital, then there wouldn’t be so much pressure on the NHS.
Yawn.
Trolls gotta troll.
Been in A&E recently?
You will find most of the patients are elderly and most of the foreigners are the staff.
I’m afraid there may be little they can do about your terminal Dunning Kruger syndrome, however.
Fantastic news for the Island,well done.
And all local native girls as well !
Use to nurses was able to everything some HCA do more then nurses I’m team lead and when come to hospital with my patient some nurses can’t do deep suction can’t do peg feed came cross district nurse who can’t do enema because it’s not train our HCA do enema, peg feed, deep suction some even blood test change catheter and get far less paid then. Nurses because they not train. Before nurses start university they were able to do everything but now it’s more academic then practical and HCA do more work then them but that’s my opinion