At the latest meeting of the Taskforce last week, Director Colin Poolman and Associate Director Eileen McKenna, reinforced the need for the Taskforce to deliver meaningful and fully funded recommendations.
The Taskforce was established as a direct result of our campaigning and against a backdrop of pressures on the nursing workforce. With stubbornly high vacancy rates, dropping applications for nursing degrees, the ongoing impact of the pandemic and increasing demands, the situation is desperate.
We are represented on the four working groups looking at wellbeing, culture and leadership, attraction and retention and education and development.
Retention is a key theme that runs through all the work of the Taskforce and we are calling for a Scotland wide retention strategy that will tackle the exodus of nursing staff from health and care services.
We have fed in your views, experiences and priorities and pushed Scottish government to ensure the Listening Project provides the nursing and midwifery workforce with a route to further engage in the process.
If you have not had a chance to engage in the Listening Project when it visited workplaces across Scotland, there is a final opportunity for you to feedback through virtual focus groups being held on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 March 2024. There is no need to sign up in advance just click on the link below to join.
| Tuesday 26 March | Teams link |
| 09.00 - 10.00 | |
| 11.00 – 12.00 | |
| 15.00 - 16.00 | |
| Wednesday 27 March | Teams link |
| 10.00 - 11.00 | |
| 12.00 - 13.00 | |
| 16.00 - 17.00 |
Themes from the discussions will be shared with the Taskforce. A short survey has also been set up to encourage nurses, midwives, nursing support workers, nursing students and anyone with an interest in our profession to give their views -
Commenting on the latest meeting, Director Colin Poolman said: “The Taskforce provides a valuable opportunity to address the challenges you are facing. But for it to meet the aspiration of making Scotland ‘the best place for nurses and midwives to come and work’, the recommendations must be ambitious and supported by the necessary funding to have an impact. Broad, high-level recommendations will not be enough; it is critical that defined, phased actions are agreed and delivered in line with set timescales.
“I have reinforced these messages to the new Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Neil Gray MSP and reminded him that the Taskforce must deliver positive change if Scotland is to have the nursing workforce it needs now and for the future.”
