31 January 2018
The Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals is to offer “golden tickets” to student nurses to increase recruitment.
Faye Crump, 2nd year student; Helen Jenkinson, Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality at SaTH and Mary Farmer, return to practice student, with a Golden Ticket.
Instead of a formal interview, student nurses from Staffordshire University will be invited to attend Values-based conversations throughout their training, culminating with a final conversation at the start of their third year of study.
Students who obtain the required qualifications and are also seen to reflect the Trust Values of Proud to Care, Make It Happen, We Value Respect and Together We Achieve, will be offered a position at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford.
Values-based conversations measure whether an individual’s attitudes and behaviours align to those of SaTH by looking at real life experiences.
Although the Trust will not be able to confirm which ward or department they will be working on, as vacancies cannot be held for 12 months, the students will be asked to express an interest about which care group and which hospital they would like to work within.
Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality, Helen Jenkinson, said: “The recruitment of nurses is one of the biggest challenges that faces SaTH, along with hospital trusts across the country. It is, therefore, important that we look at innovative new ways of attracting nurses to our Trust.
“By removing the formal interview and replacing it with a Values-based conversation, we hope to make the recruitment process smoother and quicker.
“Nursing is a wonderful vocation, and we value the contribution that our students make very highly indeed. By developing the ‘golden ticket’ we hope to ‘grow’ more of our own nurses to improve the care that we give for the people of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Mid Wales.”
A letter containing a Golden Ticket will be sent from the Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Quality to each successful student nurse welcoming them to their new post as Staff Nurse at SaTH.
Mike Phillips, Staffordshire University Associate Dean for Recruitment, said: “This is great for our student nurses who typically spend half of their time in clinical practice, working in a variety of wards and departments.
“As well as helping the Trust recruit able and talented nursing staff, this initiative removes any stress our students may have about applying for jobs and going through formal interview procedures, and allows them to focus all of their efforts on completing their training.
“We hope this initiative will encourage people interested in a nursing career to come and see what we offer at our Centre of Excellence in Health Care Education based at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.”