18 October 2017

The Trust that runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has launched a West Midlands wide campaign to invite nurses to join its Nurse Bank.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, recently hosted a number of successful One Stop Shop recruitment events and now they have launched one of their largest ever drives to attract nurses from all over the West Midlands. 

The campaign includes adverts on the back of buses that travel along the main routes in Shrewsbury, Telford, Stoke and Wolverhampton, posters and banners throughout the hospitals, adverts in the local press and targeted email and social media activity.

Winter is a busy time for hospitals and the SaTH wants to reduce its reliance on agency nurses by increasing its own bank of staff who can either work regularly or who can pick up shifts at short notice.

Bank Nursing is often seen as desirable due to the flexibility it can offer but what many people don’t realise is that because Bank workers can access the NHS Pension scheme and other benefits, the overall remuneration package is on a par with many agencies.

Victoria Maher, Workforce Director at SaTH, said: “We have to use agency staff to ensure we have enough staff on duty to provide safe care for our patients, but we would rather use our own Bank

staff as much as possible, not just because of the cost but because they provide better continuity of care for our patients.

“While work continues on the Sustainable Services Programme and we await developments to move it forward, we’re continuing our efforts to recruit staff at Staff Nurse and Healthcare Assistant recruitment days and if people can’t attend them, we offer individual interview dates.

“This Nurse Bank campaign complements the Belongtosomething campaign we launched two years ago to promote the Trust as widely as possible.”

  • Are you interested in joining the Nurse Bank Workforce at SaTH? They are offering flexible working patterns and help to Revalidate to maintain your professional registration. To find out more visit www.belongtosomething.co.uk/nursebank