Overseas-trained nurses have been told they can join the temporary coronavirus register without undertaking a formal “clinical assessment” in an attempt to bolster the NHS workforce as the third covid wave surges.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council confirmed on Tuesday that it has invited the additional nurses in a bid to “strengthen workforce capacity in the immediate period and coming weeks”.
It comes as the number of covid inpatient admissions rises sharply across the country, with London and the South East of England badly hit. At the start of the pandemic last year, the NMC asked former nurses who had left within the last three years to join the emergency covid register as cases grew.
Unison union’s national nursing officer Stuart Tuckwood believed the move will help deal with “severe” staffing shortages, but warned they must be “supported and supervised” by fully registered nurses to ensure patient safety.
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Source: HSJ, 6 January 2021
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