A row has broken out between the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, after he disputed INO estimates that some 70 per cent of nurses leave the health system within two years of qualifying. John Downes reports.
According to the INO, the number of vacant nursing positions within the health service is set to rise to over 2,200 within the next 18 months. However, Mr Martin said he wished to know upon what basis they were making this claim. He regretted what he termed the INO's "continual carping in the face of historic levels of investment which is transforming the nature of nurse education."
Speaking at the opening of the State's first purpose-built university nursing school at Dublin City University yesterday, Mr Martin said the first students of the new nursing degree programme had yet to graduate.
As a result, it was not possible to make an assessment that 70 per cent of the present cohort of students would have left the system in two years. "Everybody wanted this when I launched this," said Mr Martin. "The INO said it was the greatest decision ever made. Has their view changed in two years?"
Mr Liam Doran, general secretary of the INO, said it was "disappointed" to learn that Mr Martin viewed its comments as "carping". The INO had always supported the degree course.
The INO's estimates of the numbers of nurses leaving the system were based on analysis of its own membership data, and feedback it had received from the nursing schools.Despite major recruitment drives by employers the fact remained that some 1,500 fewer nurses would be trained next year. This was because there would be no qualifying group, due to nurse training changing from a three to four-year programme. There are currently some 700 nursing vacancies here.
Mandate and INO members told not to accept pay deal: page 10