WARRINGTON and Halton Hospitals has got off to a flying start after joining the World Health Organisation’s Nurse and Midwife of the Year 2020 programme celebrating all things nursing and midwifery.
The team has achieved national recognition by The Burdett Trust with a ‘Best Career Planning and Development Offer’ Award and a highly commended in the ‘Best use of data’ category.
The Burdett Trust made the award in recognition of a ‘national best’ in nurse recruitment and retention with turnover reducing in the last 12months since the Trust joined a National retention programmes with NHSI. In November 2018 registered nurse turnover rate was 14.99%, which reduced to 11.77 % in Sept 2019, making and overall reduction of 3.22%. This compares to the national reduction of 0.8%.
In 2018-19 the Trust set out to improve recruitment and retention with the creation of a value proposition based on nurse insight and feedback. A new career development pathway was introduced which enabled nursing staff to progress from apprentice to advanced practice care, and where newly qualified, existing and returning nurses can pursue meaningful and fulfilling careers where everyday matters. This has resulted in an increase in the number of internal promotions over the last year. This was singled out in the last CQC inspection report which noted The Trust has introduced a number of alternative roles including 28 advanced care practitioners and 4 nurse consultants. This ensures the workforce is adaptable and assists in covering hard to fill roles, as well as providing innovative career pathways.
A dedicated 12-month preceptorship programme provides extensive professional development and first-class pastoral support to ensure nurses enjoy their role, enhance their skills and realise their full potential. Additional benefits include mentorship, clinical supervision, rotations, career plans, input into departmental strategy and a work life balance to suit an individual’s needs.
Chief Nurse Kimberley Salmon-Jamieson said: “There has never been a better time to be a nurse at WHH or to join us in one of the diverse roles that we have developed.
“This prestigious award reflects the success of our journey to meet the individual needs of all nurses, which has positively impacted on nurse engagement, development and retention.”
“This has further generated positive word of mouth, accelerating success in both nurse retention and recruitment. Our recent open day saw nurses recruited on the day from outside our traditional areas and 25 of the 41 recruited will join us this year!”
