NHS to use nurse associates to handle workloads
A new type of health professionals are being considered by the NHS to help nurses and hospitals cope with increasing workloads.
The new plans have been revealed by the body that supervises recruitment and staff training, Health Education England (HEE) which said the new team of workers would be known as “nurse associates” and would take over some of the tasks currently being done by fully qualified nurses.
Chief executive of HEE, Ian Cumming said: “they would nurse patients. They would care for patients under the supervision of registered nurses. So they would have an expanded skill set compared to the healthcare support worker on the ward, but they wouldn’t be a registered nurse”.
“The NHS is telling us that they want and need something in the middle, something between a healthcare support worker and a registered nurse.”
The new workforce is expected to become qualified to look after patients after just 18-24 month-long training.
However, NHS unions are responding warily to the plans. Peter Carter, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said although the proposal sounds interesting, “there’s overwhelming evidence that patients have better outcomes when they are cared for by graduate nurses, and any proposals must avoid diluting the skill mix of staff, which would have an impact on patient care.”
Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison, said: “The NHS should build on the skills and commitment of its healthcare assistants and assistant practitioners, and invest more in these staff, who already deliver 60% of patient care.
“While we welcome enhanced training and development opportunities, roles with greater responsibilities will require higher pay levels. More also needs to be done to support healthcare assistants who want to qualify as nurses,” she added.
This comes as Tory plans to cut government funding to the NHS are expected to cause a £40m deficit to the health service while debts are predicted to exceed £170m.
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