NEWS WORLD IN BRIEF

Wales and Scotland gets much needed nurse training boost There will be 305 extra nursing students trained in Wales and Scotland this year. The Scottish Government announced a third successive rise in the number of pre-registration nurse and midwifery training places for 2015/16. In 2014/15 there were 2,965 places, while the figure for this year has risen to 3,040, an increase of 75 nursing students on last year. The number of nursing and midwifery students in Scotland has increased by 600 over the past three years. RCN Scotland associate director Ellen Hudson said increases were much needed because many experienced nurses were reaching retirement age and the effect of cuts to student numbers in 2011/12 and 2012/13 are now being seen in the NHS. ‘While the increase in places for nursing students this year is welcome, the current nursing workforce continues to be under huge strain trying to cope with increased demand,’ she said. The Welsh Government also announced that nurse training places will be increased by more than one fifth this year. An extra 230 places are

being commissioned, bringing the total number of nursing students starting training to 1,283. The training boost has been welcomed by the RCN. The college’s Wales associate director for employment relations David Wallace said the £80 million investment in healthcare professional training was much needed.

Political notebook

of female genital mutilation in girls under the age of 18 to police, said crime prevention minister Lynne Featherstone.

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New legislation will make it mandatory for nurses and midwives to report suspected cases of female genital mutilation, the government announced last week. The Royal College of Midwives and the RCN both welcomed the move as an important step to tackling the illegal practice, which is believed to affect up to 140 million females worldwide. Healthcare professionals will have one month to report suspected incidents

‘THE WORKFORCE CONTINUES TO BE UNDER HUGE STRAIN’ – Ellen Hudson

‘Financial investment will hopefully help secure a more stable and secure future for patients, and safer working environments for staff, and we hope to see this increase year-on-year,’ he said. Health Education England announced at the end of last year that an extra 827 nurse training places will be commissioned in 2015/2016. Concerns were highlighted by the RCN this month that a shortage of nursing staff is leading to soaring spending on agency personnel.

■■Measures used to improve patient safety in Wales are more comprehensive than those planned for England, according to Welsh assembly health minister Mark Drakeford. England’s health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced plans for a review of 2,000 deaths in hospitals each year in a bid to reduce the number of avoidable deaths. This is less than 1 per cent of those who die in hospital in England. In Wales, all deaths in acute hospitals are reviewed to look at the quality of care.

Bogus nursing colleges The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) has called on the government to eradicate a number of ‘fake’ nursing colleges that have sprung up across the country. DENOSA president Simon Hlungwani said the colleges were affecting the nursing profession negatively. He admitted there was a shortage of nurses in the country but said the bogus colleges were producing graduates that could not be registered with the South African Nursing Council. ‘We will not tolerate dysfunctional health services due to chronic shortages of staff and unfavourable working conditions,’ he said. Medically assisted dying A ruling by Canada’s Supreme Court last week has made it lawful for doctors to help competent adults who are terminally ill end their lives. Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) president Karima Velji said: ‘As the effects of the ruling on medically assisted dying come into focus, CNA will work with Canada’s nurse regulators to define the implications on nursing practice, in keeping with nurses’ code of ethics.’ The CNA recently surveyed about 700 nurses and found more than half supported medically assisted dying. Respiratory disease A Filipino nurse has tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) after returning from Saudi Arabia. It is the first case of the deadly virus in the Philippines. The World Health Organization is concerned about the spread of MERS-CoV, which has killed more than 350 people, mainly in Saudi Arabia, since 2012. The nurse returned to the Philippines on February 1 and is being treated at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, where her condition is described as stable. Health authorities are trying to trace 225 passengers on board the same flight from Saudi Arabia.

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Wales and Scotland gets much needed nurse training boost.

There will be 305 extra nursing students trained in Wales and Scotland this year...
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