Retired nurses and midwives to share knowledge in new mentor role
Newly qualified nurses and midwives will receive mentoring from recently retired NHS staff.
A pilot programme, launching next year, will see up to 100 retired nurses and midwives train as Professional Practice Advisers and share their knowledge, skills and experience with new NHS recruits.
These posts will focus on midwifery, health visiting, district nursing and advanced practice.
This supports a £40 million Scottish Government commitment to create an additional 2,600 nurse and midwife posts and increase student intakes by 10.8%.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said:
“To support our plans to significantly grow the NHS workforce, we need to look at ways we can effectively help our newly qualified nurses and midwives to reach their full potential.
“We also have a number of nursing and midwifery staff who have recently retired, but want to continue to provide service and support to newly qualified nurses and midwives. Experienced, retired staff have a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience, and, more importantly, confidence in using these abilities.
“We don't want valuable experience to be lost and this pilot is an excellent way to explore how we can use the knowledge of retired staff to support recently qualified employees."
Background
The Scottish Government has committed to:
- retaining bursaries and free tuition for nursing and midwifery students, which have been scrapped in England
- £5 million over three years for wider measures, including retraining former nurses and midwives and promoting nursing careers
- increasing the 2018/19 nursing and midwifery student intakes by 10.8% – an extra 364 places. Sixth successive rise, equates to 3,724 entry places
- funding for 500 advanced nurse practitioners and 500 additional Health Visitors by 31 December 2021
- introducing Best Start and recognising the unique role of midwives within that provision
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