Published:
11:37 am July 21, 2017
Update:
7:17 am October 14, 2020
A new nursing course has been launched to address the chronic shortage of nurses in hospitals in east London.
Last year, a report by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) revealed that there were more than 1,044 vacancies for nurses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which includes Mile End, Whipps Cross, Newham University and Royal London, and 333 at Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust.
It is hoped that a new three-year adult nursing degree at the University of East London will help local people fill these jobs.
Charmagne Barnes, dean of UEL’s School of Health, Sport and Biosciences, said the program would be important not just for the university but for ‘the wider east London community’ .
Ms Barnes, herself a qualified nurse, said the area was not only short of nurses, but deprived of the opportunity for people to train to become nurses: ‘At the moment there is no ‘there is no local provision for pre-registration nursing in east London.’
The new BSc (Hons) Nursing (Adult) course will be run in partnership with Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals and the North East London Foundation NHS Trusts, and is expected to change that when it starts in January 2018.
It will be 50% theory and 50% learning alongside qualified nurses at local hospitals, giving students the opportunity to gain hands-on work experience before they graduate.
The degree has received the seal of approval from the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates the nursing and midwifery professions and sets standards for education,
Ms Barnes said the NMC was “really impressed” that the course was run by partners in local hospitals.
The Dean said she was “absolutely delighted” to have won the “hugely successful endorsement”, which should have huge benefits for the region: “It is expected that by recruiting on the course from the local community, the future workforce will be provided by locally trained nurses who will stay in the area and contribute to the health economy.
The university is now accepting applications for the January 2018 intake.