Retired nurses and midwives to share knowledge in new mentor role

9 Oct 2018 12:48 PM

Newly qualified nurses and midwives will receive mentoring from recently retired NHS staff.

A pilot programme, launching next year, will see up to 100 retired nurses and midwives train as Professional Practice Advisers and share their knowledge, skills and experience with new NHS recruits.

These posts will focus on midwifery, health visiting, district nursing and advanced practice.

This supports a £40 million Scottish Government commitment to create an additional 2,600 nurse and midwife posts and increase student intakes by 10.8%.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said:

“To support our plans to significantly grow the NHS workforce, we need to look at ways we can effectively help our newly qualified nurses and midwives to reach their full potential.

“We also have a number of nursing and midwifery staff who have recently retired, but want to continue to provide service and support to newly qualified nurses and midwives. Experienced, retired staff have a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience, and, more importantly, confidence in using these abilities.

“We don't want valuable experience to be lost and this pilot is an excellent way to explore how we can use the knowledge of retired staff to support recently qualified employees."

Background

The Scottish Government has committed to: