It could be my imagination, but it seems to me that nurses are in higher demand than they have been over the last year.

The UK is screaming out for Irish Nurses in particular.  Unfortunately the weakening of sterling has made it less attractive for Irish nurses from a financial aspect.  There does remain though, the fact that the NHS is generally a much nicer system to work under than the HSE.  It’s not all bad here though.  And we are seeing nursing jobs begin to spring up despite the continued ban on recruitment.  Most of these jobs are private sector.

Nursing as a profession can be deeply rewarding, but threat of pay cuts and harder working conditions make it ever less attractive to school leavers, or even those who have been working as nurses for years.

It is hard work and it is sometimes dangerous work.  The plain truth of it is that nurses will always be in demand.  There will never be a time when this country is without nurses.  Just a few short years ago we were importing nurses because we could not find enough nurses to cope.  As our population ages we are going to need greater numbers of nurses again.  The cosmopolitan environment that exists in our hospitals, hospices, homes and clinics has doubtless been instrumental in aiding with cultural integration in this previously secular country.

Nurses have a lot to be proud of.  The contribution made by nurses to society is one that the nation should be eternally grateful for.  I know that nurses feel persecuted by the government, by cutbacks and by heavier workloads.  I think we may be reaching the bottom of the recessionary curve now though.  Things are looking up.

Have a look at some of the nursing jobs on offer!

Agency Nursing used to be a great fallback for Irish Nurses.  Many chose to work solely as agency nurses because of the flexibility that gave.  You could choose your hours.  You were never guaranteed a shift but it was a good likelihood as long as you were not too picky about where you worked.

Mary Harney has announced that Crumlin Childrens Hospital is overstaffed.  As professor Crown so rightly points out, closing wards by slashing budgets needed to keep them staffed does not count as over-staffing.  Increasing patient numbers are now to be dealt with with utilising severely curtailed resources.  Some are being forced to look to the UK for treatment.

This is just one example.  The message is clear.  There are to be less nursing posts.  Is this a problem for nurses?

Just a few short years ago hospitals were clambering over themselves to source staff from India because we didn’t have enough Irish staff willing to work in Irish conditions.  Together with the Filipino nursing backbone of our country the addition of large numbers of Indian staff nurses added to the wonderful mix of cultures that make up a modern Irish Hospital.

Working conditions are arguably far worse now.  Nursing is still a passport to see the world.  Now with degrees under their belts, newly qualified nurses expect more.  But it is not so easy to expect more when you need to pay your bills and feed yourself.  If I was a new graduate I would be off to see the world, working as I went.

Are agency days over?  They probably should be.  Nursing agencies only grew so big because of bad staff management in the hospitals and hospices they served.  Some Hospitals were taking in 20+ agency staff a day (nurses and carers). The bill was massive.  The reason was that the Hospitals were not approved the funding for permanent job positions that would have cost far less.  Instead they had to pay through the nose for Agency Staff.  That sort of ridiculous situation needed to stop.  Yes there will probably always be a need for Nursing Agencies to provide temporary staff.  This is not ideal, since agency staff will not know the ward they are working on as well as permanent staff.  This leads to increased workload on the permanent staff.  If an agency nurse does know the ward as well as permanent staff then that must be an indicator of a case for another permanent staff member.

Final advice: If you are a nurse and not planning to leave the country get yourself into permanent employment as quickly as you can.  The current situation is not going to ease in the near future.

Horray for Pharmacists!

We had recently noticed a surge of activity in Pharmacy Recruitment and this is one of the reasons why -

From 1st November 2008, the HSE will restore the mark-up it pays to Pharmacists from 8% to the previous rate of 17.66%. On September 11th the High Court found that the HSE was in breach of its contract with Pharmacists when it decided to reduce payments for the provision of drugs and services under the medical card scheme. The HSE was orded to pay the costs in the case. In response to the court ruling and in a major climb-down, the HSE announce on the 14th October that it had decided to restore the original mark-up arrangements from the beginning of November.

“In compliance with a recent High Court judgement, the wholesale mark-up the HSE pays to pharmacies for medicines supplied through the various medical card schmes will be increased on November 1st from 8 per cent to 17.66%”, it said.

Actually the HSE have already started restructuring their finances.  They are acting on the recommendations of a report they received in 2007.  They have already implemented 9 out of 25 changes.  And they certainly needed them.

The HSE inherited the financial structure of the old Health Board system.  That meant that they had a staggering 250 bank accounts spread throughout seven different banks.  The HSE also inherited 17 individual accounting systems.  In short it must be nearly impossible for them to keep track of where taxpayers money is going.

How much do the HSE think they can save by gaining transparency in their financial systems?  A whopping €100 million a year.  But there is a small snag.  Isn’t there always.  The new systems will cost somewhere in the region of €50million.  So it remains to be seen if the government will be willing to sign off on te HSE plans.

The Health services track record is not good.  They spent a fortune on PPARS pay systems that never worked.  In fairness to the Health Service Executive, they inherited that mess too.  It had been underway since 1995 and cost us a mere €150million in total.  We were still in the midst of the Celtic Tiger when that news broke and the general reaction seemed to be a lack of surprise but not the kind of outrage that we might see if we see a repeat performance in the current economic climate.  Deloitte were quite happy having made €40million in consultancy fees on that project alone. At the end of 2005 over €30 million had been spent on consultancy fees alone.  And what did the HSE have to show for that money?  Not one single element of the project had been implemented after 10 years!

But I’m sure the HSE will do a better job of undertaking a much larger project.  I’m sure it will only take the two years they expect it to take to roll it out.  And I’m sure it will only cost the €50million they say it will. The HSE had nothing to do with the Port Tunnel, or the Luas.  What could possibly go wrong?

At least the government are clever enough to ask serious questions before they sign on the dotted line… aren’t they?

Maybe it is time to get a job in IT…. I smell money.