Student nurses and midwives completing unpaid placements during the Covid-19 pandemic should be taken on as paid employees during the crisis, the head of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has urged.

Talks are taking place between the HSE and unions over retired nurses returning to do hospital shifts to cope with coronavirus.

The union and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have proposed changes to the plans and are awaiting a response from HSE management.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has written to the HSE seeking specific details about preparations for the coronavirus.

More hospital beds will continue to be needed to deal with hospital hospital overcrowding, according to Health Minister Simon Harris.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha has said it should not take a personal visit to the emergency department for the political system to know that citizens should not be subjected to lengthy waiting times.

There were 1,450 admitted patients waiting on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick this month, making it the most overcrowded public acute hospital in the country.

Ireland's nurses and midwives are warning that Ireland will lose more young nurses to British hospitals after Brexit.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has begun meeting with hospital groups seeking curtailment of services against a backdrop of more than 1,300 vacancies in nursing and midwifery posts.

A survey of graduating nurses which will be published later this month will show that more are prepared to stay and work in Ireland because of improved pay.

There has been a 7% rise in the number of people waiting on trolleys in hospitals across the country.

The roll-out of the HPV vaccine to schoolboys is due to get underway in September of this year, however, it has emerged that this may not be possible due to staffing shortages.

Three Munster-based acute public hospitals were worst affected by overcrowding in May, it has emerged.

Nurses were the most assaulted group of workers in HSE hospitals last year, accounting for three in five of all recorded incidents.

Three in five nurses have voted to accept Labour Court proposals aimed at resolving a dispute that triggered three days of strike action earlier this year.

Latest: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has played down concerns about the highest hospital trolley numbers this year amid warnings patients are fearful of attending emergency units.

The majority view of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation strike committees is that the new nurses’ contract “is a good deal”.

The INMO, the HSE and government officials spent eight hours at the negotiations, which ended shortly before 1am this morning.

The country’s hospitals will be plunged into chaos by six 24-hour strikes by nurses unless the Government can adequately address their demands for pay increases of up to 12%.

Nurses and midwives have warned that planned strikes could still go ahead if the Government fails to heed its warnings on hospital overcrowding.

The Taoiseach has called on hospital consultants and nurses to cancel Christmas leave to stave off pending chaos in hospital emergency departments.

This month was the worst October on record for hospital overcrowding with 9,055 admitted patients forced to wait for a bed on trolleys and chairs.

Nurses unions have not ruled out the possibility of industrial action after recommending its members reject the Government’s pay proposals.

Last month was the worst May ever recorded by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) for people on trolleys in the country’s hospitals.

The crisis of nurse recruitment and retention plaguing the health service shows no sign of abating with seven in 10 of the current crop of fourth-year student nurses considering emigrating following graduation.

Nurses who carry out smear tests on behalf of CervicalCheck have received no formal guidance from the national screening programme about how to handle the current crisis.

The HSE has recruited almost three times more administrative and managerial staff than front-line nurses in the past three years.

Hospital overcrowding continued yesterday, with 500 people waiting for an in-patient bed, according to the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has admitted he is baffled by the sky-rocketing trolley count crisis after claiming he does not know why the situation is spiralling out of control.

January was the worst month on record for hospital overcrowding, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said its figures show.

INMO defends figures as hospital boss says ‘many patients are appropriately on trolleys’ for assessment.

INMO defends figures as hospital boss says ‘many patients are appropriately on trolleys’ for assessment

The HSE says hospitals struggling to cope with the flu epidemic will not turn people away.

As a record 656 patients waited for a hospital bed yesterday, nurses warned that the health service could buckle under pressure from the flu epidemic.

Nurses fear the HSE’s spending plan poses a “high risk” to the safe delivery of patient care.

Elderly people living at home are not receiving the level of support nurses say they need and this amounts to “elder abuse” by the State.

The HSE has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after it threatened to take the Pensions Board to the High Court over its ruling on payments to an injured nurse, only to settle the case.

An international nursing study has linked long shifts to increased burnout but nurses in Ireland say staffing levels and workloads are mainly to blame.

The HSE is locked in a dispute with nurses over who should be responsible for private home care workers providing unregulated services to thousands of older people.