Nursing profession must be valued says Shropshire health boss
The role of nursing has changed over the decades and more needs to be done to brand the profession, a Shropshire health boss has said.
Deirdre Fowler, director of nursing, midwifery and quality at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, says valuing the profession and improving conditions that nurses work in are important factors in attracting a workforce.
She said: "My mother was a nurse and I guess I always had her as a role model.
"I saw the difference she made to our local community and I wanted to replicate that, but also when I trained as a nurse, nursing was a career of great esteem and pride.
"I wanted a career that was valued and nursing offered me the opportunity to travel and have lots of variety in my work life.
"Nursing has changed quite significantly over the years, but nurses still require the prerequisite of compassion and really good communication skills.
"The profession of nursing has been bruised over the last couple of years and we really need to do a lot more as a health service, and as public, to value our nurses more.
"The skills that nurses need now are quite different than when I trained.
"The nurses need to be far more resilient now. It's a very tough job."
She said becoming a nurse was also academically challenging and nurses needed to multi-task, often acting as social workers, counsellors and administrators.
Speaking about how to attract people to nursing roles, Ms Fowler said: "I think we would need to do a lot more to brand the profession of nursing and there's a lot of research that talks about appealing to the four generations of nurses we have now in the NHS.
"This is the first time we've actually seen four distinct generations working together and they don't all want the same thing.
"It's about valuing the profession. It's about appealing to all the generations.
"It's about looking at the hours and conditions that nurses work in."
