Where were nursing vacancies advertised and were they advertised in Eire

3.12   Deputy A.E. Jeune of the Minister for Health and Social Services regarding advertisements for nursing staff.

Would the Minister advise where her department has advertised for nursing staff in the past 12 months and specifically whether it advertised in Eire and if so, in what publications?

Deputy A.E. Pryke of Trinity (The Minister for Health and Social Services): Over the last 12 months we have advertised for nurses in the following publications: The Royal College of Nursing Bulletin, which as I am sure the Deputy knows is the Nursing Times, a weekly; and the  Glasgow Gazette as well as at www.jerseynurses.org website. We have also directly targeted nurses in Eire through adverts in the World of Irish Nursing magazine, the Skills for Nurses magazine and the Loads of Jobs website.

1. Deputy A.E. Jeune :

So Nursing Standard and the H.S.J. (Health Service Journal), things like that, we have not advertised in, can the Minister confirm?

The Deputy of Trinity :

I can confirm that we have advertised, as I said, in the Royal College of Nursing Bulletin, which is the Nursing Times which comes out weekly.

Deputy A.E. Jeune :

But confirming not the other publications which a lot of nurses use?

The Deputy of Trinity :

As I said, the  Royal College of Nursing Bulletin, the  Glasgow Gazette, the www.jerseynurses.org website ... instead of repeating it I can give the Deputy the list.

The Deputy Bailiff :

I think Minister you are being asked to confirm that you have not advertised in the 2 publications which the Deputy mentioned.

The Deputy of Trinity :

The Nursing Times, Sir, I said that. I said, yes, which is the Royal College of Nursing Bulletin.

Deputy A.E. Jeune :

H.S.J., the Health Service Journal?

The Deputy of Trinity :

If I understand the Health Service Journal is more management. The Royal College of Nursing is specifically to nurses which nurses in good practice should be getting that copy each week.

2. Deputy A.E. Jeune :

I do not know if it within the question, but out of the  Irish Nursing  magazine advertisement, how many responses have been received?

The Deputy of Trinity :

I do not have the number of actual responses that have been received. There has been some successful recruitment from the advertising. In Ireland there has been concerns due to the Irish Government, it is sometimes if a nurse wants to come over here and sell their house in Ireland they do have problems because of where they are in the economic states.

3. Senator T.J. Le Main:

I would like to get confirmation from the Minister for Health and Social Services that one of the true difficulties she faces in recruitment, particularly in places like Ireland, is that nurses are invariably in their 30s and 40s and sometimes have families and the difficulty is providing affordable cheapish or good accommodation to suit their needs.

The Deputy of Trinity :

Yes, the Senator is quite right. Not only do most nurses now have a change of career midway through, gone are the days when most of the people that went into nursing were straight from school, it is a career change and the Senator is quite right, if they tend to have a family with them and most of them are women so they tend to have a husband too, or partner, and so they become the main breadwinner and housing accommodation here is a problem.

4. Deputy A.E. Jeune :

The universities in the U.K. certainly are still putting out an awful lot of very young nurses and I have not been able to get anybody to say that they are all coming out in their 30s and 40s, but I do believe that we have major recruitment problems and I appreciate the Minister addressing them, particularly in AP coming through this week but I still feel there is more we could be doing, does the Minister agree?

The Deputy of Trinity :

There is always room ... I am always short of nurses and if the Deputy has some more ideas of where we can go then I very much welcome that.