STUDENT nurses are doing their bit to help tackle the national shortage of GP practice-based nurses.
Led by Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), six student nurses in their second year of training at Birmingham City University are undertaking full-time, nine-week placements at local surgeries as part of the first full programme of its kind in the region.
The move, aimed at encouraging student nurses to follow a career in primary care will see Hampton-in-Arden Surgery, Yew Tree Medical Centre, Grove Surgery, St Margaret’s Medical Practice, Tanworth Lane Surgery and Craig Croft Medical Centre welcome the first group of nurses into their practices to help them get experience working in different types of nursing.
With both GP practices and hospitals struggling to recruit nurses, the CCG also hopes the initiative will inspire more student nurses to pursue practice nursing as a career.
Student nurse Sarah Yates, who is at Tanworth Lane, said the placement gave her opportunities for training in many different areas which would not have been available in a hospital.
She added: “In the practice you get to know your patients.
“It is different from working in a hospital because you see the same patients and build up a rapport so it is easier for them to talk about the problems they are having and, as a nurse, that’s nice.”
The CCG plans to recruit another, bigger group of students and involve more practices to the programme in November.
