Uunder-fire NHS Grampian chiefs are fighting back against the staff crisis threatening frontline services and luring nurses back to the wards.
And they say their drive to attract people back into the profession has been so successful their tactics could be adopted nationwide
A new 15-week course run in collaboration with Robert Gordon University is the first of its kind in Scotland to guarantee a job for successful students.
Eighteen former nurses have already gone through the return to practice scheme since it was launched in the summer.
All are due to complete their clinical placements by the end of the year – and will be back staffing wards from then.
A second intake of former nurses will begin the course in January.
The programme is available full or part-time and normally a lapse of registration of up to 12 years requires 300 practice hours over an eight-week period.
A lapse of registration of more than 12 years will be 450 hours of practice.
Scores of new nurses have already been put into NHS Grampian wards thanks to a huge recruitment drive, and health chiefs have hailed the innovative programme to help people resume their careers.
One of them is 44-year-old Elaine Lee, who left nursing in 2001 to work in pharmacy.
Ms Lee, from Aberdeen, who is now lead heart failure nurse with the health board, said: “Returning to practice is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done so I’m pleased that there is now a formal programme you can follow that will make it easier for people to come back to nursing.
“It’s easy to forget just how much of a difference you can make for patients and there’s a lot to be said for the job satisfaction you get from knowing you are doing something really worthwhile in life.”
Sheila Irvine, a professional development educator with NHS Grampian, said: “The theory and learning for the programme is largely carried out in an online, virtual environment, with six mandatory face-to-face study days, and delivered alongside clinical placements.”
Professor Ian Murray, head of RGU’s school of nursing and midwifery, said he hoped many former nurses would be encouraged to take places on the course.
He added: “The current return to practice nursing cohort has found the course challenging but also very rewarding both personally and professionally, and have really enjoyed working with patients again.”
Gerry Laurie, deputy director of workforce at NHS Grampian, said the board was looking at new ways to attract staff to the north-east.
She said: “It’s great to see that work attracting considerable interest from elsewhere in the country and there are now a number of other Scottish NHS boards looking at the potential of developing similar schemes in their own areas.
“We’ve made substantial strides forward recently with our total workforce increasing by more than 300 people since April last year which includes over 175 whole time equivalent nursing and midwifery staff.”
Earlier this week Audit Scotland revealed staff turnover at hospitals in the north and north-east was the highest in Scotland.
The powerful watchdog also warned that the trend was a threat to health boards maintaining service levels.
Public sector staff are often put off living in the affluent north-east because of high housing costs and a relatively high cost of living.
A number of different proposals to plug staffing gaps have been mooted, including subsidised housing to attract health professionals from other areas.