You’re hired! Recruitment rally rounds up 50 new nurses for local hospitals
Epsom and St Helier hospitals are set to welcome 50 new nurses over the coming months following a successful recruitment campaign.
The latest phase of the campaign, which involved hosting two open days where people could apply for nursing jobs on the spot, was part of the trust’s ongoing focus on recruitment, which has already resulted in 300 nurses joining the trust since last April.
Charlotte Hall, Chief Nurse, explained “I am absolutely thrilled with how successful our most recent nurse recruitment campaign has been. We are fully committed to providing great care to every patient every day, and recruiting permanent staff and strengthening our nursing teams is an integral part of this. A lot of hard work went into the campaign, and I would like to thank everyone involved in making it such a success.
“However, recruitment is just one part of the story. We recognise how important it is to take care of and develop our staff, which is why we have recently appointed a new Lead Nurse for Nurse Retention and Progression to ensure that our nurses are able to get the most out of their jobs and themselves. Results from our staff survey show that our people already rate our trust highly as a place to work and receive care, so hopefully all of the new recruits are excited to become part of a the team!
“As a registered nurse and midwife, as well as a member of the Executive Team at Epsom and St Helier, I can tell you that nursing is an incredible career. It’s packed full of opportunities and job satisfaction, and, of course, there’s never a dull moment!
Ann Kelly, Head of Recruitment, who helped organise and facilitate the open days added: “We have been working incredibly hard on recruitment over the last 12 months and are delighted with the success of our most recent campaign.
“We held two open days for nurses, one at each hospital, which were attended by a total of 60 people. There was a great buzz on both days, with many of our senior nursing staff giving up their free time to be on-hand to meet people, answer any questions and even conduct some interviews! We are now in the process of making 26 offers to registered nurses and 13 offers to student nurses due to qualify between now and September. We are really keen to continue with our success, so are already planning additional open days for later in the year.”
In addition to the open days, the trust has run a special recruitment campaign aimed specifically at student nurses who are due to qualify from September. Ann said: “It was great to see so many student nurses attend the open days, but we don’t always reach as many we would like, which is why we decided to have a separate focus on student nurses as well. As a result of this, we have made an additional 12 offers – nine student nurses from the children’s branch and three from the adult branch.
“Over the course of the campaign, we have met some fantastic people and are really excited to welcome so many high quality new recruits.”
For more information about our hospitals and opportunities to join the team, visit www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/work-for-us.
