Sir, – Our national crisis in nurse recruitment is a crisis of retention that has been a number of years in the making and could have been averted if appropriate retention strategies had been implemented.
While plans to open hundreds of extra hospital beds are a welcome initiative in addressing the overcrowding in emergency departments, patient safety will be compromised in the absence of appropriate numbers of nurses to staff these beds.
There is an unspoken expectation that nurses can provide increased levels of service despite their markedly reduced numbers. This demonstrates an abject failure to address the reasons nurses are leaving the Irish health system.
The lauded success of the HSE in retaining newly-qualified nurses will quickly evaporate as they will understandably choose to leave Ireland to practice nursing in a safe environment and in an effective way.
The recruitment of nurses from overseas will help address this current shortage although they too will go after some time. It is difficult to morally justify their recruitment to alleviate our self-made shortage, as they leave healthcare systems that are significantly less resourced than our own. Appropriate numbers of skilled nurses are pivotal to the effective functioning of all health systems. Retention strategies must focus on addressing the reasons nurses leave. – Yours, etc,
PAUL TROY RGN, BNS,
MSc,
Santry,
Dublin 9.