Midwifery Council (midwifery + council)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Nursing shortages and international nurse migration

INTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 4 2005
S. J. Ross mpa/id
Background:, The United Kingdom and the United States are among several developed countries currently experiencing nursing shortages. While the USA has not yet implemented policies to encourage nurse immigration, nursing shortages will likely result in the growth of foreign nurse immigration to the USA. Understanding the factors that drive the migration of nurses is critical as the USA exerts more pull on the foreign nurse workforce. Aim:, To predict the international migration of nurses to the UK using widely available data on country characteristics. Method:, The Nursing and Midwifery Council serves as the source of data on foreign nurse registrations in the UK between 1998 and 2002. We develop and test a regression model that predicts the number of foreign nurse registrants in the UK based on source country characteristics. We collect country-level data from sources such as the World Bank and the World Health Organization. Results:, The shortage of nurses in the UK has been accompanied by massive and disproportionate growth in the number of foreign nurses from poor countries. Low-income, English-speaking countries that engage in high levels of bilateral trade experience greater losses of nurses to the UK. Conclusion:, Poor countries seeking economic growth through international trade expose themselves to the emigration of skilled labour. This tendency is currently exacerbated by nursing shortages in developed countries. Countries at risk for nurse emigration should adjust health sector planning to account for expected losses in personnel. Moreover, policy makers in host countries should address the impact of recruitment on source country health service delivery. [source]


Nursing competence 10 years on: fit for practice and purpose yet?

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 10 2008
Ann Bradshaw PhD, Dip N
Aims and objectives., This paper examines how nurses are prepared to be clinically competent and safe at registration, so that they are fit for practice and purpose. It follows up two papers on competence published in 1997 and 1998 and investigates subsequent developments. Background., In 1979, major changes in nursing affected nurse education and preparation for competence. In the following two decades, it became clear that nurses lacked clinical skills. This paper examines subsequent changes and asks the question whether this crucial shortcoming has now been remedied. This paper considers the background and context of change in nursing and nurse education in the 1980s. It looks at the new ideology, to prepare the ,knowledgeable doer' and examines the consequences of the change on nursing competency from the 1990s to the present day. Methods., This is a position paper. Professional policy documents from the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting and Nursing and Midwifery Council, government reports and legislation on nursing and relevant nursing literature are examined and critically analysed and conclusions drawn. Conclusions., From 1923,1977, mandatory nursing syllabuses set by the General Nursing Council of England and Wales required the registered nurse to have acquired certain specific clinical skills. These were rigorously tested to an explicit standard set by the General Nursing Council before a nurse was awarded state registration. Twenty-five years later, the loss of this system for ensuring this competence and the implications of this loss, have been widely recognised. As a result, many nurse training institutions have introduced clinical skills laboratories, simulation of practice and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination. However, to the authors' surprise and contrary to their initial expectations, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has not made these systems uniform or mandatory and so still has no way of ensuring all nurse training is producing safe nurses in the United Kingdom. The authors conclude that the untested educational ideology that brought root and branch change to nurse training in 1983 and which failed to produce nurses ,fit for practice and purpose' may still prevail. Relevance to clinical practice., The present paper demonstrates that United Kingdom nurse training still has no uniform and mandatory system in place to ensure, as far as is possible, that all registered nurses are clinically competent and safe to practice. [source]


Atrophy and anarchy: third national survey of nursing skill-mix and advanced nursing practice in ophthalmology

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 12 2006
Dip Nursing, Wladyslawa J. Czuber-Dochan MSc
Aims and objectives., The aims of the study were to investigate the advanced nursing practice and the skill-mix of nurses working in ophthalmology. Background., The expansion of new nursing roles in the United Kingdom in the past decade is set against the background of a nursing shortage. The plan to modernize the National Health Service and improve the efficiency and delivery of healthcare services as well as to reduce junior doctors' hours contributes towards a profusion of new and more specialized and advanced nursing roles in various areas of nursing including ophthalmology. Design., A self-reporting quantitative questionnaire was employed. The study used comparative and descriptive statistical tests. Method., The questionnaires were distributed to all ophthalmic hospitals and units in the United Kingdom. Hospital and unit managers were responsible for completing the questionnaires. Results., Out of a total 181 questionnaires 117 were returned. There is a downward trend in the total number of nurses working in ophthalmology. The results demonstrate more nurses working at an advanced level. However, there is a general confusion regarding role interpretation at the advanced level of practice, evident through the wide range of job titles being used. There was inconsistency in the qualifications expected of these nurses. Conclusion., Whilst there are more nurses working at an advanced level this is set against an ageing workforce and an overall decline in the number of nurses in ophthalmology. There is inconsistency in job titles, grades, roles and qualifications for nurses who work at an advanced or higher level of practice. The Agenda for Change with its new structure for grading jobs in the United Kingdom may offer protection and consistency in job titles, pay and qualifications for National Health Service nurse specialists. The Nursing and Midwifery Council needs to provide clear guidelines to the practitioners on educational and professional requirements, to protect patients and nurses. Relevance to clinical practice., The findings indicate that there is a need for better regulations for nurses working at advanced nursing practice. [source]


The times they are a changin

JOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2009
Cert Ed, MIKE THOMAS PhD
Aim, A discussion paper outlining the potential for a multi-qualified health practitioner who has undertaken a programme of study incorporating the strengths of the specialist nurse with other professional routes. Background and rationale, The concept and the context of ,nursing' is wide and generalized across the healthcare spectrum with a huge number of practitioners in separate branches, specialities and sub-specialities. As a profession, nursing consists of different groups in alliance with each other. How different is the work of the mental health forensic expert from an acute interventionalist, or a nurse therapist, from a clinical expert in neurological deterioration? The alliance holds because of the way nurses are educated and culturalized into the profession, and the influence of the statutory bodies and the context of a historical nationalized health system. This paper discusses the potential for a new type of healthcare professional, one which pushes the intra- and inter-professional agenda towards multi-qualified staff who would be able to work across current care boundaries and be more flexible regarding future care delivery. In September 2003, the Nursing and Midwifery Council stated that there were ,more than 656 000 practitioners' on its register and proposed that from April 2004, there were new entry descriptors. Identifying such large numbers of practitioners across a wide range of specialities brings several areas of the profession into question. Above all else, it highlights how nursing has fought and gained recognition for specialisms and that through this, it may be argued client groups receive the best possible ,fit' for their needs, wants and demands. However, it also highlights deficits in certain disciplines of care, for example, in mental health and learning disabilities. We argue that a practitioner holding different professional qualifications would be in a position to provide a more holistic service to the client. Is there then a gap for a ,new breed' of practitioner; ,a hybrid' that can achieve a balanced care provision to reduce the stress of multiple visits and multiple explanations? Methods, Review of the literature but essentially informed by the authors personal vision relating to the future of health practitioner education. Implications for nursing management, This article is of significance for nurse managers as the future workforce and skill mix of both acute and community settings will be strongly influenced by the initial preregistration nurse education. [source]