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Children’s Hospice South West offers to pay nurses to return to profession

Children’s Hospice South West offers to pay nurses to return to profession

A children’s hospice in Wraxall is hoping to entice former nurses back into the field by offering to pay for a return to work course.

Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) is offering the incentive to tackle the nationwide shortage of nurses in children’s palliative care.

The lack of staff has been affecting the care available to children with life limiting conditions, but CHSW wants to show how rewarding the role can be.

Mandy Robbins, director of care at CHSW, said: “Children’s palliative care requires dedication and enthusiasm and we would like to invite nurses who may have left the profession, to return to nursing, inspired to care again in what is one of the most rewarding roles available.”

Nurses under the scheme will become a paid member of the CHSW care team. Health Education England will fund the return to nursing course fee and pay a £1,000 incentive to the candidate.

Ruth Lyes was a registered children’s nurse who left the profession to raise her family. When she heard about the opportunity to work at the hospice through the return to nursing scheme, she jumped at the chance.

She said: “I’ve always loved children and so having an opportunity to be able to care for them really appealed to me.

“Prior to working at the hospice, I had had no experience of working in palliative care, but working one-to-one with children I could get to know very well, really appealed to me.

“Working at the hospice has been so rewarding. Despite what many people think, it is a happy place with such a lovely atmosphere.

“Palliative care is something I never thought I could do, but after joining the team in my late 40s, I was so happy and continued until my retirement at 65.

“I would recommend the return to nursing opportunity to anyone, it certainly helped me use my nursing skills again to make a difference to the lives of children and their families and brought me tremendous job satisfaction.”

Source:  North Somerset Times