United Kingdom

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a completely new pay system in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.Pay and pay systems are a critical element in any health sector human resource strategy. Changing a pay system can be one strategy to achieve or sustain organizational change. [from abstract]

The RCN commissioned a survey of 6,000 members in 2000 to explore nurses’ wellbeing and working lives. The results subsequently helped shape RCN policy and materials for members on topics such as bullying and harassment, violence, needlestick injury and employee-friendly working practices. Five years later, the RCN has commissioned a second survey looking at a similar range of issues. This report documents the findings of that survey, and describes differences between the 2000 and 2005 survey findings. [introduction]

In order to help improve Royal College of Nursing understanding of the employment experiences of internationally recruited nurses and UK trained black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses, the RCN commissioned a secondary analysis to draw together commentary and analysis from previous surveys.

In this second article in a series presenting data from a longitudinal cohort study about pharmacy careers, the authors discuss some key issues relating to the 2006 pharmacy graduate cohort's expected career choices and patterns of work. [adapted from author]

In light of pharmacy workforce shortages in Great Britain, the profession’s regulatory body commissioned a programme of longitudinal work to explore pharmacy career decision-making in relation to influences on career choice and intended career paths. Our objective was to gather data on career intentions that could be used to produce robust predictions about pharmacist supply. [from abstract]

The aim of the Code of Practice is to promote high standards of practice in the international recruitment and employment of healthcare professionals. This is underpinned by the principle that any international recruitment of healthcare professionals should not prejudice the healthcare systems of developing countries. Therefore a key component of the Code of Practice is to preclude the active recruitment of healthcare professionals from developing countries, unless there exists a government-to-government agreement to support recruitment activities. The Code of Practice also acknowledges the reality that the international movement of healthcare professionals is a long established practice that will continue.

The aim of this study was to establish whether a web-based package on the diagnosis of respiratory disease would be as effective and as acceptable to final year medical students as tutor-led methods of teaching the same material. [from abstract]

This is a comprehensive review of the Pharmacy Workforce in Northern Ireland undertaken between February and April 2001. It outlines themethodology and discusses the results obtained with regard to the areas of recruitment and retention, demand and models of deployment. [adapted from author]

This paper examines the policy options for the regulation of dual job holding by medical professionals in highly resource-constrained settings. It draws on the limited evidence available on this topic to assess a number of regulatory options in relation to the objectives of quality of care and access to services, as well as some of the policy constraints that can undermine implementation in resource-poor settings. [from abstract]

This presentation was part of the “Call to Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health” conference. It discusses the problems of international recruitement, the motivation to emigrate, expectations and the experiences of migrating health workers. [from author’s description]

The NHS in Scotland is facing unprecedented change and is looking to transform existing models of health care. It also reinforces that improvements in healthcare will be achieved by new and more efficient ways of working, such as using the skills of nurses and allied health
professionals to take on more roles and give patients more choice. This document presents a generic framework to guide the development of new roles. It can be used to assist in the planning process to ensure that roles are needs led, meet governance requirements, are sustainable, as well as ensuring that the development is supported by the whole team thus ensuring its success.

In recent months, the debate over foreign workers in the UK has become more heated. While the government argues that more foreign workers will raise growth, protectionists insist that foreign workers are robbing British citizens of jobs. A different question is also asked: how can Africa develop if the brightest and best are leaving? The debate runs a serious risk of trivialising what is a complex set of issues. [from author]

The aims of the study were to develop a proactive and responsive system for analysing future workforce needs in pharmacy and to make recommendations on how future supply and demand could be managed. [from summary]

This paper examines the recent significant growth in international recruitment of qualified nurses to the United Kingdom. The paper examines trends in recruitment using data from the UK professional register of nurses, and discusses the reasons why employers recruit internationally, and why nurses are internationally mobile. [from abstract]

This good practice guide is intended as a practical guide for trust boards and managers to help them to use temporary nursing staff effectively. The guide comprises a narrative of the salient points in the use and management of temporary nursing staff and includes a number of good practice checklists. It also provides case studies drawn from study visits and the work of the Department of Health’s National Agency Staffing Project. [from preface]

Since 2000, [National Health Service] NHS workforce policy has focused on increasing the size of the health care workforce. However, as financial investment in the NHS slows down, expanding capacity by simply increasing workforce numbers is no longer viable. Instead, alternative approaches are needed to develop a sustainable workforce that is flexible enough in its work practices to manage the complex changes facing the NHS. ‘Grow-your-own’ workforce approaches have the potential to address some of these challenges. Drawing on the experiences of London NHS organisations, this paper explores the conditions required to embed grow-your-own approaches into mainstream NHS workforce development. [publisher’s description]

This Royal College of Nursing (RCN) publication is designed to assist you in your role as a mentor to pre-registration nursing and midwifery students. It outlines your responsibilities alongside those of the student, higher education institutions (HEIs) and placement providers. [introduction]

The present study reviews and analyses major known national guidelines and strategies for prevention and management of workplace violence. The purpose is to get a detailed picture of strategies recommended, a better knowledge on existing guidance for employers and employees. Another objective is to obtain information on the implementation processes and the impact of the reviewed guidelines. Identification of good practices as well as gaps shall serve as a basis for lessons learnt for the development of future guidance materials. The comparison of the guidelines will cover different aspects which can be summarized as background of the guidelines, strategies which are recommended, implementation and impact of guidelines and strategies.

This paper summarizes the outcome of a workshop to examine National Health Service workforce supply and demand. [from abstract]

The Royal College of Nursing commissioned this report into the employment policy and practice implications of the rapid growth in the number of internationally recruited nurses working in the UK. [from summary]

This document is designed as a resource to support the 10 High Impact HR Changes as outlined in “A National Framework to Support Local Workforce Strategy Development.” These include: support and lead effective change management; develop effective recruitment, good induction and supportive management; develop shared service models and effective use of IT; manage temporary staffing costs; promote staff health and manage sickness absence; promote job and service re-design; develop and implement appraisal; involve staff and work in partnership to develop good employee relations; champion good people management practices; and provide effective training and development.

Though reforms in the health sector have recently been common around the world, their success has, for a variety of reasons, been mixed. The paper aims to examine and explain the importance of human resources (HR) to the success or failure of health reforms using case studies from Russia, Zambia and the United Kingdom. [from abstract]

This report summarizes a UK-wide survey to find out what information nurses, health visitors,midwives and health care assistants need to support their practice and lifelong learning. [adapted from author]

This report analytically and comparatively reviews international models and experiences in the development and implementation of health care regulations. The study commences with an introduction to the concept of health care regulations, and then describes the most universally common approaches for putting them into practice: licensing, accreditation, and certification. Depending on the country and its economic and political structures, different governmental and voluntary regulations over health services have evolved. Traditionally, in most countries, official licensure of health personnel has been the favored approach.

Whilst the issue of international migration of health workers is sometimes presented as a one-way linear ‘brain drain,’ the dynamics of international mobility, migration and recruitment of health workers are complex. Against this complex backdrop, the main objectives of this paper, drawing from the terms of reference, are: to examine trends in the inflow of health workers to the UK; to examine the methods used in the international recruitment of health workers to the UK; to report on the Department of Health Code of Practice; to provide case studies in the impact of outflow of health workers from developed countries (Ghana and Barbados); and to discuss the international policy context of health workers recruitment and migration and identify current knowledge gaps for future research.

This article synthesizes information about nurse migration into and out of the United Kingdom in the period to 2005, and assesses policy implications. [from abstract]

This paper assesses the reasons for recent growth in recruitment of registered nurses from other countries to the United Kingdom (UK). It aims to examine trends in inward recruitment of nurses to the UK, assess the impact of free mobility of registered nurses in the European Union from a UK perspective, examine the impact of the introduction of ethical guidelines on international recruitment of nurses to the UK, and explore the reasons why registered nurses are internationally mobile. [from introduction]

The paper reports on a survey of recently arrived international nurses working in London, to assess their demographic profile, motivations, experiences and career plans. [from abstract]

The main objectives of this paper are to report on the country and demographic profile, motivations, experiences and career plans of recently recruited international nurses working in London, and to give a detailed insight into why they have come to the UK, and what are their future intentions. In order to put these findings in context, the paper also outlines the overall trends in numbers of nurses coming to the UK, and examines the policy context in which international recruitment activity has been conducted. [from introduction]

This report examines key issues in the recruitment and retention of nurses in the UK. The research was conducted because there are currently significant recruitment and retention problems across a number of professions within the NHS, but particularly in nursing and the professions allied to medicine. [from executive summary]