NHS-qualified-nurse-supply-and-demand-survey-12-May1

SECTION C – NHS REGISTERED NURSE SUPPLYAND DEMANDHeadlines——90 surveyed organisations (83 per cent) reported they are experiencingqualified nursing workforce supply shortages (Figure 1.5)——Table 1b provides a high level summary of the reported hard to fill nursingvacanciesResults indicate:— 42 organisations (39 per cent) are estimated to have between 1–50 FTE*qualified nurse vacancies, 39 (36 per cent) are estimated to have between50–100 FTE* vacancies and nine organisations (8 per cent) are estimatedto have 100+ FTE* nurse vacancies (figures ranging from 110–250)— 42 per cent of the reported hard to fill vacancies have been unfilled for3–6 months, and 20 per cent for over 6 months— Skill shortages at a local or national level are the most reported reasonsfor recruitment difficulties— Local actions to manage supply shortages have focused on skill mixreviews/service reconfiguration, local recruitment campaigns and use ofagency/temporary staff. See further detail in section D.*Organisations were asked to provide FTE information for each hard to fill areafrom pre-defined ranges (i.e. 1–10, 11–20, 21–30) these trends are based on acalculation of the highest number in the range, thus presenting the worst casescenario in terms of the number of vacancies.——Table 1c provides a breakdown of reported hard to fill vacancies by nursingarea so we can observe where the demand is.Results indicate:— 278 reports of hard to fill nursing vacancies from the surveyed organisations(across all A4C bands and specialisms)— The general trend indicates that there are low volumes of vacancies (FTE)in any one organisation for a given specialism. Although many organisationsreport hard to fill vacancies in a number of different nursing specialismswhich compounds their recruitment challenges (refer to FTE vacancyfigures above).— Demand spans a wide range of nursing areas (over 40). There is minimalevidence to indicate serve recruitment difficulties in specific areas ofnursing on a national/regional level – the two exceptions where resultscould possibly indicate more widespread challenges are at Band 5:Band 5:— Hard to fill vacancies in Band 5 theatre nursing were reported by 22 percent of survey organisations, however most of which were for low volumes(between 1–20 FTE nurses) with posts vacant for periods of 3–6 months.National and local skills shortages are reported to be the primary reasonsfor recruitment challenges in this area.14 May 2014NHS Qualified Nurse Supply and Demand Survey – findings