Valuing, Sustaining and developing the nursing workforce

Recruitment and retention have been long standing challenges for nursing and I don’t recall a time in the last 20 years that we haven’t talked about this. The need to recruit, train and retain adequate numbers of nurses has not been addressed. This has left the profession chronically depleted. We take in new recruits at the front end as we lose existing workforce with people leaving and retiring at the other end. It appears we don’t plan for this in a way that comes close to balancing our numbers for a sustainable workforce that can thrive rather than just survive.

I have considered 3 key areas for this blog. Valuing, sustaining and developing our workforce.

1.    Value

How we value ourselves and how the profession is valued is central to recruitment and retention. I wrote about the importance of acknowledging the prevailing narrative in my very first blog and all of our roles in changing that narrative. The nursing profession appears to me to have an internal and external narrative of ‘scarcity’ and ‘not enough’. Our negative perceptions can impact on our ability to remain resourceful whilst at work and then impact on our ability to attract new recruits and retain those we do attract into the profession. A vicious circle. Covid-19 has provided us with an incredible opportunity to build on the acknowledgment of our importance and how valued our contribution to society is.

The Prime Minister has received nursing care and spoken of his gratitude to our profession. I would like to see more politicians and those who commission healthcare services to come and spend time with us, to really see what we do , feel what we feel and to see the value that we add. 

Christie Watson in the book The Language of Kindness spoke of her shock at the lack of literature and books written about nursing or by nurses. As a profession we need to say more about our value and tell our stories (carefully and professionally of course).

Value is often measured in monetary terms and we do deserve remuneration in line with both our healthcare colleagues and professionals outside the heath service. We need to proudly speak of our value and be renumerated in way that will attract excellence into the profession, allow us to grow our professional expertise and advance.

2. Sustain

Retaining talent in our profession is reliant on our ability to care for ourselves, care for each other and ensure long term nourishment of our development needs.

In caring for ourselves we need to acknowledge when we are not okay and be able to take time to debrief, to reflect and restore. Clinical Supervision (restorative reflection with a suitably skilled professional) provides this in midwifery and social work, and in pockets of nursing practice. A sustainable approach to allowing each nurse access to a restorative reflective space regularly has the potential to support individuals throughout their career journey.

We have seen ‘wobble rooms’ and number of health and well-being initiatives during Covid. Long may the acknowledgement of our need for care continue. I would like to see long term support being facilitated for every healthcare worker. Being allocated time to attend clinical supervision or engage in reflective practice demonstrates an acceptance of the need for on-going support in our often emotionally impactful roles.

As a profession we need to embrace flexible working patterns and support ourselves and each other to achieve a greater work-life balance, again this is a way to sustain ourselves and create an environment of work that enables us to flourish and be our best.

3. Develop

When we operate from a scarcity model, we want to hold on to each person and we may deny development opportunities and growth. When we have limited resources, it can seem counter-intuitive to allow our individuals and teams time for development.  This further compounds the narrative of scarcity. This may be a cause of our workforce seeking alternative careers and employment. When we deliberately invest in and enable career progression we enable individuals to see their journey with us, the abundance of opportunities for growth and to see the life long career that nursing can be.

We must encourage people to try out new roles and to develop. We must invest in our people, knowing that each nurse we retain wherever they work remains a vital contributor to our NHS and to the health of our nation. We must proudly promote the opportunities and celebrate all aspects of nursing.

By doing this we will enable the brilliance of our profession to shine from the many diverse and varied roles of nursing.

Our number of recruits needs to match the needs of our work and importantly include time for support, reflective practice and professional development. Our rosters need to build in the study time required not just to maintain our practice but to grow and develop our practice.

By valuing, sustaining and developing we will move from surviving to thriving, growing and advancing.