Nursing News

A lack of flexibility in permanent jobs drives nurses to take up bank or agency working, according to a new report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

The survey Temporary Working also highlights the impact of the NHS financial crisis with almost half of newly qualified nurses (48%) doing temporary or bank work saying it is not their preferred choice. This supports evidence of the shifting labour market, with newly qualified nurses struggling to find posts and forced to take up temporary work instead. One in ten of respondents said they took up temporary work as they had no alternative, and a third would prefer to be in a permanent nursing post.

More than 500 nurses took part in the survey, which found a split in opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of temporary work. Whilst many nurses welcome the flexibility it affords them, others would prefer to be in a permanent job - but can't find a suitable role. Around 65% of respondents said they took up temporary work to gain flexibility in working hours, something which many permanent roles did not offer. A number of anonymous responses highlight the difficulty many nurses have getting flexible working arrangements. One response read: "bank and agency nurses get a poor press as the 'money grabbers' of the NHS, when in reality many of us are doing it because of a lack of other options. No trust in this areas offers family-friendly hours, and I have had seven job offers retracted when I asked about it."

Other findings include: • 68% of nurse undertake temporary work to supplement their basic pay• Over half (55%) of nurses do bank/agency work on a regular basis. • 1 in 3 nurses said that uncertainty and unpredictability of work supply is the main downside of temporary work• Black and minority ethnic respondents are more likely to work night shifts and weekend shifts than their white counterparts

Janet Davies, Executive Director of the RCN said: "The effect of job post freezes and redundancies are clear - for many nurses temporary work is their only option.

"It's also a real concern that many nurses are not afforded flexibility in their permanent roles and are forced to move into temporary roles. The Government had committed to ensuring that nurses had greater flexibility in their working lives - yet these findings clearly show that this has not happened."

Jane Ball and Geoff Pike, Employment Research, 2006, Temporary Working: results from an on-line survey of nurses 2006, published by Royal College of Nursing Employment Research Ltd is an independent research consultancy, undertaking a range of research and evaluation, much of which is focused on health sector human resource issues.

www.rcn.org.uk