Updated 4.50pm
THE HSE HAS decided to accept applications for its graduate nursing scheme on a continuous rolling basis – cancelling the deadline originally set for today.
The closing date set for applications for Phase 1 of the Graduate Nurse Recruitment Scheme was originally today, Friday, 1 February.
However the HSE told TheJournal.ie in a statement:
as the number of applications received has been low, the HSE confirmed today that applications will continue to be processed on a continuous rolling basis for all qualifying graduates.The jobs initiative is open to nursing graduates from 2010, 2011 and 2012 graduates.
The HSE also said it has advised the Nursing Colleges and Directors of Nursing that all employment to be offered to 2013 graduates will be under this initiative.
Derek Reilly of the INMO told TheJournal.ie that the extension “is a sign the scheme has obviously failed”.
We are just hoping they see sense. If they recruited 1000 people at a proper rate, they would save €25 million on agency time.
He said that the jobs are “not necessarily new jobs” and that the INMO is happy the students have continued to hold to their boycott. He said it is “very disingenuous of the HSE to attack one sector” while they are in talks over the Croke Park Agreement.
Why specifically target nurses, frontline workers?
Opportunity
The HSE said that the initiative offers the “opportunity to gain substantial clinical experience”, and “an opportunity for further professional development”.
Nurses participating in the Graduate Programme will be supported to complete a Certificate in Advanced Healthcare Skills, such as Health Assessment and Pharmacology.
The news came an hour after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Organisation held a protest outside HSE headquarters in Dublin, during which they handed in a letter to the HSE’s Deputy CEO, Barry O’Brien.
The INMO and PNA have both been calling for a boycott of the graduate scheme and have asked the HSE to meet them to discuss measures which they say would keep nurses in jobs while saving money. They are calling for the HSE/Department of Health to suspend the proposed programme and negotiate with them on the issue.
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