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THE IRISH NURSES and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said that Irish nurses are being “aggressively recruited” from Ireland – and are willing to leave because of higher wages and better working conditions abroad.
The INMO made the comments yesterday as it launched its first paediatric trolley watch, which counts how many children are on trolleys in children’s hospitals. The trolley watch found that 73 children were on trolleys in emergency departments in the first two weeks of this year.
At the launch, the INMO said that the recruitment and retention of nurses is of particular concern to the organisation, and needs to be addressed by the government.
The government’s Public Service Pay Commission is currently examining the reasons for issues with the recruitment and retention of staff in sectors such as nursing.
According to HSE annual report figures for 2016, nursing staffing levels have fallen by more than 3,000 since 2007. The HSE committed to increasing the nursing and midwifery workforce to deliver 1,208 additional permanent posts last year.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, the general secretary of the INMO, said that one major issue affecting retention is recruitment from abroad.
“We have a very serious situation as well with the UK aggressively recruiting our qualifying sick children nurses, particularly Great Ormond Street,” she said.
They view the training our nurses receive very highly, and they come here to recruit. And unfortunately our conditions of employment are such that it seems far more attractive for our nurses to emigrate and that’s something we think should be curbed, nipped in the bud, and there’s only one way to do it – and that’s to make the conditions here better.
She added: “The UK hospitals are very sophisticated in how they recruit, both in the children’s and in the adult. So they come, they have their package set out and they know exactly how many they’ll take. So they go to specific colleges, they meet the students when they are in their final year and they pitch and they offer them very attractive packages.”
Ní Sheaghdha told TheJournal.ie: “Most nurses would like to consolidate their training in their training hospital even if that’s for a year or six months. What we’re finding is the package in the UK, and because it’s so close and travel-wise it’s easy, they’re outweighing the benefit that most people think they would get by staying in their training hospital and consolidating their training. So they’re leaving.”
She said that the health department needs to look at policy around this issue.
“We have to look at what are we paying nurses across all of the children’s and adults [services] because clearly we are losing the battle,” she said, adding that the INMO has made submissions to the Public Service Pay Commission on the issue.
We believe the argument of ‘do we have a recruitment and retention problem’ – that argument is done. There is.
“There’s clearly a huge crisis now in recruitment and retention for nurses and midwives. And the next step is, well, what do we do to correct that, and as far as we’re concerned everything has been tried except correction of the pay.”
According to Ní Sheaghdha, at the moment they train 100 nurses a year in the disciplines of general and paediatrics, which is a combined course, and they also have 83 – 84 postgraduate places for nurses who want to go on to do paediatrics.
Retention issues
Last year, 107 children’s nurses were recruited and started – and 106 left. “So that doesn’t fill us with any joy or enthusiasm that this is going to go away,” said Ní Sheaghdha of issues around retention.
It is reflective of the general population of nursing in that those who are leaving are quickly outpacing those that start. And this is a real, real problem.
She said this issue is reflective of the pay and the hours that nurses are expected to work in very busy hospitals. She said that when HIQA looked at the occupancy of hospitals, it stated that the hospitals are operating at such a level it leads to “high burnout among staff” and “a turnover rate of staff that is just not sustainable”.
“We have to do something to stop that,” said Ní Sheaghdha. ”We are on record as saying until nurses’ pay is corrected and until the hours reflect those of other healthcare professionals, the problem isn’t going to go away.”
The HSE has been working with the INMO to increase the number of new nurses retained, but Ní Sheaghdha said that though the target was 1,224, by last September the number had only grown by 13.
The HSE launched a ‘bring them home’ campaign for nurses, which offered up-front payments for returning nurses. However, it failed to bring in the big numbers it was hoped.
“I think we are very adamant we have to have concrete plans of recruitment and retention,” said Ní Sheaghdha.
“You cannot continue to pay nurses 10 – 15% less than their comparative allied healthcare professionals who have exactly the same entry requirements into the profession, who work in exactly the same areas, pay them less and ask them to work longer hours. That is a recipe for disaster which we are now in the middle of.”
The INMO said it was also concerned about the number of nurses recruited for the new National Children’s Hospital – due to open in 2020 – and has been in discussions about doubling the number required.
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I would prefer nurses/ doctors getting more money than those feckers in the dail getting another pay rise…..
@Róisín Daly: they also deserve more than bus drivers but sadly don’t come close.
@Róisín Daly: I wonder if it would help if any earning below a set income don’t pay tax. Same for anyone in emergency services.
@Gillian Scully: why apply taxation to it. All of us would then get the benefits. Higher pay and better conditions. Public servants on pay-freeze since 2008. Unable to meet living costs not to mind to save for a house.
@Gillian Scully: It would certaibly help if the cost of accommodation and living in Dublin could be made more affordable for our medical staff. As one nurse in the Mater told me that young nurses are forced to go abroad to gain experience and to simply live.
@Róisín Daly: not just nurses and doctors try radiographers, physiotherapists , occupational therapists, scientists……
There are numerous underpaid staff groups the healthcare sector.
Money is one issue and don’t get me wrong it’s a big issue but the fact of the matter is the UK offers their nurses more opportunities to progress to a higher band within a shorter period of time, in Ireland it could take you 10 years to get a sister role in the UK 2-3 years??albeit it’s a junior sister but you are being given a opportunity seldom offered in Ireland. There is an emphasis on continued education and you are encouraged to partake in as many training programmes as you can….HSE offers courses but can you even get the day off to attend without leaving your ward short staffed?
@Elaine McCarville: exactly….in this whole debate ( Ire v UK ) it’s not just about wages…we need to look at the “whole” package…in this article they’re just using a like-for-like approach
As a nurse myself, a pay rise would be amazing but the conditions we work in is the main thing that needs sorting out. Most days I feel like crying because it feels as though, no matter how hard you work everything is still going against you. Our health service and hospitals are toxic to both patients and staff at the moment. I feel the government don’t do anything for us ever. We just do our very best day in day out. I think it’s time someone looks after nurses like we look after patients.
Front line workers should have a very different pay model to the rest of the public sector. Makes zero financial sense to educate a nurse, to see them emigrate and then hire two substandard agency nurses in their stead.
It would make sense to offer nurses a payrise , they’re Irish and have been trained for Ireland . Politicians and , I’m sure , hospital management are on good money .
@Ken Hayden: Yes Irish nurses should be forced to remain in olde Oireland where they can dance at the crossroads on their days off. Ourselves alone.
@Adam Reid: perhaps you need to see a nurse??
@Adam Reid: I think offering nurses an incentive to remain in Ireland , is not the same as forcing them to stay .
However they probably should be forced to dance at crossroads , if that floats your boat .
@Adam Reid: Yes , and Work 24 hrs for free. After all , it’s a vocation begorra
just pay our nurses what they deserve,
@Des Doran: there’s no way you can afford rent/mortgage on a basic nurses salary without overtime. They’re not leaving just because they want to.
Last week I met an experienced nurse crying in the ED because of the strain. They should take better opportunities where offered because what I saw was abuse.
@FacelessJuniorDoctor: Well you shudda seen the “abuse” during the snow last week !
How nurses are treated by their superiors should be examined . I left nursing 8 years ago . My memories were of being treated poorly and feeling very undervalued , inflexible off duty and poor managment. The conditions and pay have since deteriorated hugely .
And when Brexit comes around the nurses will be told to leave.I assume this to be the case under their immigration policy.We need to pay our brilliant nurses and doctors their proper rates of pay.
@gerry fallon: Your assumptions are totally inaccurate. Your knowledge of immigration policy equally so.
Yeah @gerry fallon, cos there were no non nationals in Britain before brexit. Probably be more opportunities in UK for Irish people now.
Irish nurses: Thrown right in on the front-line from their first year of college ‘training’, expected to work anti-social hours, underpaid and unappreciated.
INMO: “Why on earth would they want to leave?”
@Michael Anthony Thompson: nurses were always on the front line once they had qualified. The problem today is,it’s all college and very little clinical experience.
When our daughter graduated from a nursing degree here in Dublin 5 years ago she and most of her class emigrated. She went to London. At the time Vincents were offering a 6 month contract at 80% of the salary. No further education was available either. She left after being offered a job whilst still waiting to graduate. In the last 5 years she has done a post grad fully funded by her trust and is now a band 6 a a clinical nurse specialist. She looks at the jobs being offered here and laughs and doesnt know why anyone would choose to return home to a job so badly paid, but thats not the real issue, the real issue is the conditions and the lack of further education. We are on a slippery slope here…
Pay is one factor because at current rates of pay there is nothing left after rent/ mortgage. The second is more important, the absolutely appalling working conditions. This applies to all areas not just the high viz places such as A and E. The system is completely on its knees and there is no fixing that in the short term.
@mary conneely: Rates of pay for Irish nurses and medical staff are higher than the OECD average (as are the number of nurses per head of our younger than average population). The problem with pay is due to our higher than average cost of living which is largely caused by business passing on the costs of the high business-taxes (especially rates) exacted to fund the salaries and pensions of our far higher than average remunerated and pensioned public servants.
Of course, everyone wants everyone else to bear the pain of breaking this vicious circle.
@Peter O’Muiri: the numbers don’t tell the whole story but you’re right about this being a societal issue, we ALLOW successive governments to drive this unjust unsustainable model. Rough figures in my situation are modest House in Dublin = 13 years wages compared to famously expensive Australia where it would be 8years or less of wages.
Stamp out bullying within the profession … Would help . It’s endemic within the industry. … Wouldn’t go back , if I was paid double..
@Seamus McKenzie: Soooo agree with ya. Horrendous
We get uppity when the Americans want to send back workers we don’t want. We get uppity when someone wants the workers we do want.
The British were right – we’ll never be happy.
Pay them properly and offer progression, then we wouldn’t be short on nurses.
completely agree with your experience there-my daughter spent 8 years in UK where she got every opportunity to improve her skills-continual progression to the point where she was teaching students-disappointed since she returned at the lack of opportunities to improve -going backwards here she reckons.
Gov’t can’t afford to pay frontline healthcare workers a proper wage for the following reasons *won’t properly tax major corporations *overpaying bus/tram/train drivers *failed to face down a rabble of mostly non-paye contributors who decided that ,in the name of equality, they would not pay for their water while the rest of the country do *allowed our European overmasters to bully us into guaranteeing the gambling debts of unsecured bond holders * are too busy awarding themselves uncontested pay rises * forced those of us who did not get greedy/stupid during the so-called Celtic tiger to pick up the debts of those who did. (Could add several more to this list, but you know who you are!)
@paul-m: But Paul, we have more nurses than the average among the OECD countries. Shouldn’t we be looking at the work-practices and organisational reasons why our nurses appear so less productive before throwing more money at the HSE? I mean, doesn’t the public deserve to get good value for it’s money? (Just in case you think I am saying work-practices and organisation are the only problems contributing to the HSE mess – I’m not. However, the nurses, doubly paid consultants, clipboard-armed administrators, overpaid drug-companies and suppliers, and parish-pump populists are all blaming everyone but themselves for the mess, while the public whose healthcare is the raison-d’etre of the HSE has no voice and looks on impotently and with growing bewilderment and disgust.
Lousy wages. Massive accomodation costs, regular violent assaults, abuse and absolutely no respect from government. Now why in the name of god are they leaving. Lads I’m scratchin me head here.
As a nurse I deeply resent the implication that we are being unproductive. I have 34 years nursing experience and am worn out. Unfortunately I have 11 more years to face. And if people like Mr o’Muiri have their way, I’ll be hobbling round a ward with my own walking frame asking my patients if they need help to get to the toilet.
I’d wonder why Nurse are leaving for better pay and conditions!
Given the fact we have an above average number of nurses in the OECD countries, this is less of a catastrophe than the nurses’ trade union would like us to believe. Our priority should be investigating and addressing the reasons why our nurses are seemingly so unproductive before more public money is thrown at the HSE.
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