Report confirms patient outcomes linked to staffing levels

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Matt

The RN4CASTstudy, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), demonstrates yet further proof of the RCNs own research that staffing cuts lead to nurses feeling over worked and unable to provide the quality of the care they would like to.

RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary Dr Peter Carter said: “It is shocking that the burnout experienced by nurses in England is the second worst in Europe, and this should be a major cause of concern for employers. Nursing is not an easy job that just anyone can do; it requires a high level of skill and dedication and in this country we are very privileged to have such a committed workforce.”

The study was conducted across 1105 general acute hospitals, of which 488 were in European countries, and 617 in the USA. Among other conclusions, the US based part of the study shows that “investments in better nurse staffing improved patient outcomes only if hospitals also had a good work environment.” (Ref: BMJ 2012;344:e1717)

How to get a place on a midwifery course at university

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Matt

Midwifery is notorious for being one of the hardest areas of healthcare to get into. Places on midwifery courses are limited and always massively over-subscribed so it’s absolutely essential if you’re serious about getting a place on a course, you put the effort into your application, personal statement and interview technique.

As I’m sure you know if you’ve researched midwifery courses, all applications are made through UCAS. You need to submit details about your past education, employment, voluntary work and work experience, as well as a personal statement. Be as thorough and inclusive as you possibly can because even unrelated jobs can be useful to your application if you have learned transferable skills, such as the ability to manage stress, handle complicated queries or deliver consistent customer service.

Your personal statement is the one and only opportunity you have to communicate directly with the admissions tutor before they decide whether or not you are going to be offered an interview. It needs to speak clearly about why you want to become a midwife, what your understanding of the role is and how committed you are to getting a job in midwifery when you graduate. Be accurate, concise, but passionate about why getting on to this course means everything to you.

Assuming you survive the sift process and are offered an interview, you will usually have to participate in a group discussion or exercise, an individual interview and a short maths test. Some universities conduct group interviews, and if you’re in that situation be sure you make yourself heard and don’t let those who speak loudest shut you out of the discussion.

Read more about How to be successful when applying to University for a Midwifery Course by following the link.

A new resource for Learning Disability Nurses

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Matt

We’re really excited to announce that the newest and most comprehensive resource on the internet for Learning Disability Nurses has been launched. Nurses.co.uk has been working closely with the team behind LearningDisabilityNurse.com to jointly promote careers in learning disability nursing and to raise awareness of the opportunities available.

The RNLDs behind it

Learningdisabilitynurse.com began as a social media campaign before the website itself came into being, and it’s the result of the efforts of three dedicated learning disability nurses Anthony Green, Sean Ledington and Tracy March. The team were finalists for the Fiona Law award in 2011 at the National Network of Learning Disability Nurses (NNLDN) conference, and as part of the competition were invited to take part in a project. The main aim of the project was to raise awareness of learning disability nursing in order to increase the number of students engaged in that particular branch of nursing.

They quickly realised that an entire social media campaign would be needed to achieve their aims and have since been actively running a group on Facebook, among other social media sites, while their new site was under construction.

Resources for anyone thinking of becoming an RNLD

If you’re considering becoming a learning disabilities nurse, or are thinking about studying any branch of nursing at university, this is the website for you. You will find all the information you need about the career opportunities available to RNLDs, the type of work you could be involved in and how to access a study path that can lead you on to become a qualified learning disabilities nurse.

Resources for student RNLDs

Once you’re on a learning disability nursing course, you will find all the relevant resources here to help you with tasks such as writing assignments (including Harvard Referencing), conducting a literature review and building your portfolio. The Facebook and Twitter groups are still very active, and they offer an established support network of other learning disability nurses, both student and qualified, who are happy to help answer your questions.

Resources for qualified RNLDs

There are resources available on the site for RNLDs at every point in their careers, from newly qualified to experienced professional. You can find out about preceptorships, maintaining your registration with the NMC, and where your career in learning disabilities nursing can take you. Job vacancies are updated daily, and there are articles detailing postgraduate training opportunities, how to maintain your portfolio and regular blogs about developments in the sector.

Check it out now – LearningDisabilityNurse.com

5 quick tips to improve your nursing or midwifery CV

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Matt

Your nursing or midwifery CV is one of the most powerful tools you have when it comes to applying for jobs, so it’s worth getting it to look its best. We still come across CVs that could benefit from some improvement, so I’ve put together my top 5 tips to improve your current CV before applying for your next job.

1. Add a ‘key skills’ area near the top of your CV. Use this section to list skills and competencies that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. An employer can read this and immediately weigh up in their mind how relevant your skills are for the job. You can use the person specification from the job advert to cross-check how many of the essential and desired skills you possess.

2. Create a catchy sub-title to appear directly underneath your name. As I’m sure you already know the first thing on your CV should be your name, in a larger font size than the rest of the document, but underneath that you can use a sub-title. Make sure it’s relevant to the role you’re applying for and use relevant keywords that explain who you are. For example: Experienced Paediatric RSCN Nurse currently studying for Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioner in Critical Care Masters Degree.

3. Simplify the appearance of your CV by making small adjustments to the layout. White space is as important as text so use paragraphs, bullet points and spacing wherever possible. Don’t necessarily start hacking your CV apart and deleting vital information, but simply by organising some key points into lists, using short summaries instead of full details (where appropriate) and reducing the amount of space given to older, less relevant information you can instantly improve the effectiveness of your CV.

4. Order your employment history by newest first. Make the most of your current employment, your responsibilities and whether you’ve been internally promoted or have taken on extra tasks in addition to your job. This section is so important, probably as much as your entire past working history so give it pride of place at the top of your employment record. You can then decide according to how many nursing or midwifery jobs you’ve had in the past how much detail to go into about each of them. Make whatever you say about each of those posts relevant to the job you’re applying for by highlighting skills you gained, competencies you achieved and responsibilities you managed.

5. And finally.. if you use any decorative fonts, photos, or any type of illustration on your CV, you should definitely remove them! I know to many of you this will sound absurd but I still occasionally see CVs that have photos attached, are entirely written in italic text or contain headings in a hard to read font. Don’t waste the employer’s time making it hard for them to access your information, go for a simple, clear font that is easy to read and quick to deliver your skills to the reader.

Check out the nurses job search page to find your next ideal job in nursing, midwifery or allied health professional careers.

Could you be a Custody Nurse Practitioner in the Metropolitan Police Service?

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Matt

If you’re looking for your next career move in nursing and can’t find the right position within the NHS, then why not think about joining the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as a Custody Nurse Practitioner. It’s undoubtedly a challenging role, but one that offers the chance for you to use your advanced nursing skills to create a positive outcome for people in difficult situations.

In a recent article published in the careers area of Nurses.co.uk, Jackie Donohue talks about her job as a Custody Nurse Practitioner in the MPS and why it was the ideal challenge she was looking for in her nursing career. “The autonomy of the role really appealed and I could see it would push my boundaries. I was also interested in working for the MPS. Not just because they’re a very good organisation and employer to work for. I wanted to feel that I was doing my part; making my community a better, safer place.”

The Metropolitan Police Service are currently recruiting for Custody Nurse Practitioners for locations throughout London, and in order to offer applicants the chance to find out more information before they apply they are also running a series of Presentation Days. You can attend free of charge to find out more about the role, get tips about completing your application and see inside a live custody suite.

For all the information about applying, follow this link: Custody Nurse Practitioner Job with the Metropolitan Police Service in London.

NHS bill to go back to the House of Lords

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Matt

The increasingly controversial bill to reform the NHS returns to the House of Lords for debate later today. It’s unlikely to have an easy ride to approval, partly due to the list of reforms already drawn up by Liberal Democrat peers who oppose the bill in its current form.

The bill would give GPs much of the control over NHS budgets and would increase competition between the NHS, private sector companies and voluntary organisations. It would also see the Competition Commission in the position of reviewing the development of this competitive activity.

While the main aim of the bill is to empower doctors and nurses with the resources they need to deliver excellent quality care, it’s also argued that these proposed changes will create an even more complex organisation than the NHS currently is. Lord Crisp, a former NHS chief, said these planned reforms would “set the NHS back.”

If the NHS reform bill ends up being approved, it’s hard to know exactly what the implications are on a day to day basis for the doctors and nurses it’s meant to be working for. Only last week the RCN was excluded from a meeting at Downing Street about these reforms, and Dr Peter Carter said, “it was difficult to understand how the Government could hold a productive meeting on the Health and Social Care Bill without representation from the single biggest workforce in the NHS”.

The House of Lords is expected to vote through the changes to legislation that have been made since it was last debated in the house, so we wait to see if the amended bill is approved this afternoon.

How to write your CV after years of nursing experience

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Matt

I just published an article about CV writing when you have several years of experience in nursing, (equally applicable to midwifery!) and you’re trying to compose a CV that doesn’t read like War and Peace. It’s a tricky one because you want to make sure you’ve given enough information that the employer will offer you an interview, but not so much that your CV begins with your first job when you were 16 years old!

There are 7 ‘Golden Rule’ points to follow when writing a nursing or midwifery CV (check out the article link below for full details), and as long as you follow these your CV can be whatever you want it to be. When you’re thinking about the layout, you should always be thinking “How can this work for me?”. If you want to put your current job and responsibilities at the top, underneath your name and contact details, because that’s what you feel would be most relevant, then go for it.

Effective CV writing is all about giving the employer the relevant information about your experience, qualifications, professional development and employment history so they can discover you are the ideal candidate for the job.

Read the article in full here - How to update your nurse CV after several years of nursing experience

Fighting for the rights of patients with learning disabilities

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Matt

The Guardian recently published a really excellent article about championing the rights for patients with learning disabilities in main stream healthcare. They featured a nurse consultant called Jim Blair, who works at St George’s Hospital in south London, and who is campaigning for better care for people with learning disabilities in all parts of the healthcare system.

The right that every person has to access healthcare in this country does not diminish because that individual has a learning disability, and Jim Blair is championing a change of attitude and better training for nurses across all healthcare disciplines. In 2007, Mencap published a report called ‘Death by Indifference’, which highlighted the deaths of 6 people with learning disabilities as a result of failings in the NHS. After that report was made public and the health ombudsman concluded that the 6 people in question were failed by the NHS on some level, many more families came forward to report similar experiences. 5 years on from that report and Mencap has published an update called Death by Indifference: 74 and counting, which is looking at 74 deaths that have been reported to mencap over the last 10 years.

Further learning disability training for all nurses is key to making improvements in a system that the ombudsman originally found in some cases
to have “failed to live up to human rights principles, especially those of dignity and equality”. Jim Blair feels that “nursing education has failed nurses, and it has failed the public”, but also that change is coming. He feels that advocates for excellence in learning disabilities nursing are growing and their voice is being heard. He says, “there is a growing impetus for change in the health system and within communities, and that the government should concentrate on recommending pragmatic initiatives such as having a national panel for learning disability that includes people with a disability and their carers.”

Change4Life launches alcohol awareness campaign

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Matt

We all remember the plasticine people from the Change4Life campaigns of recent months and years that have highlighted different ways to make small changes for a healthier lifestyle. Well, now they’re back with a new focus and it’s alcohol. The campaign is called “Is drinking sneaking up on you?”, and it highlights the dangers of thinking you only have the occasional drink when actually that occasional drink turns into two or three drinks every night.

In 2010 Professor Tim Key, an epidemiologist at Oxford University, published a study in the British Journal of Cancer that highlighted alcohol and obesity as the the two most significant dietary factors relating to the risk of developing cancer. His study stated that in generally well-nourished people, the effect of eating more fruit and vegetables had yet to show up with any significance against the risk of developing cancer. “Available data suggest that general increases in fruit and vegetable intake would not have much effect on cancer rates, at least in well-nourished populations.”

“Fruit and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet and a good source of nutrients. But so far the data does not prove that eating increased amounts of fruit and vegetables offers much protection against cancer. But there’s strong scientific evidence to show that, after smoking, being overweight and alcohol are two of the biggest cancer risks.”

This is the recent campaign video from Change4Life.