James Paget recruits 40 nurses

The trust said in recent years the hospital has used bank or agency staff to fill the gaps from vacancies but that the new recruits meant it was now at “full strength”.

In addition to employing local nursing students, the hospital has also recruited 30 of the 40 registered nurses from Portugal. 

Director of nursing, Tina Cookson, said: “Our Board of Directors recognised the strong case for recruiting to fill registered nurse vacancies. We are now up to our full establishment for registered nurses and this will help us continue to improve the care we give our patients.”

“Like other rural or coastal hospitals we have found it difficult to recruit all the registered nurses that we need to care for our patients. Portugal has excellent nurse training and they currently have more nurses than can be employed in their home country.”.

The nurses from Portugal are all registered with the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council, all underwent thorough assessment of their clinical skills and their written and spoken English skills.

The nurses have also all gone through a formal adaptation course (three week induction programme) before starting their clinical duties.