Half of new nurses got job in 4 weeks

HALF of newly qualified nurses got a job as a registered nurse within four weeks of graduating, a new study shows.

Just 3% said they were currently unemployed and seeking work as a nurse.

The Health Service Executive survey was conducted last year to see how nurses who graduated from college in 2008 had progressed.

It looked at 42% of the 1,421 graduates who completed a degree course in general, psychiatric or intellectual disability nursing in 2008.

The findings were described as positive and encouraging by the HSE’s office of the nursing services director.

Three-quarters of the nurses were employed in the public or voluntary health sector, with the majority (68%) employed in acute hospitals.

Of the 558 who started work in Ireland as a registered nurse, 235 were employed within the Dublin area.

It found that 456 (88%) had a full-time position, working between 37.5 to 39 hours or more per week

Only 4% were seeking work as a registered nurse abroad while 5% were involved in further education, mostly nursing related.

Almost all of the nurses (93%) felt they were prepared for their initial position as a nurse.

It is just four years ago since nursing in Ireland became a graduate profession when the first group of nurses emerged with their degrees having completed a four-year programme.

An Bord Altranais (AB), the statutory body responsible for the regulation of the practice of nursing and midwifery, set requirements and standards to govern the programmes.

There are 13 higher education institutions involved in the delivery of 44 BSc undergraduate programmes in nursing/midwifery.

The Department of Health and Children through workforce planning processes determined the number of designated course places in BSc undergraduate programmes in nursing/midwifery.

In 2008, 1,820 students commenced a degree programme in nursing/midwifery.