Following lobbying efforts from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), all student nurses are to be offered hospital posts following graduation, the Department of Health has confirmed.
At a meeting yesterday between the INMO and the HSE, it was confirmed that was early as September fourth-year nurses will be offered permanent posts by hospitals following graduation.
In a press statement, the General Secretary of INMO, Liam Doran, said that the union is “absolutely committed to securing permanent employment for our graduate nurse/midwife members”. He also called on members to help the union ensure that the HSE “fully implement this measure”.
The decision to offer fourth-year nurses permanent posts was first mooted in February. After this most recent confirmation hospitals will be directed by the Department of Health to begin offering contracts to nursing students.
INMO and Department of Health officials will work together over the next few weeks to ensure that all hospitals are offering permanent posts to fourth-year students, according to Doran.
In the past the union has campaigned to secure permanent hospital posts for all graduates, especially in recent years as the public sector has faced a severe shortage of nursing staff.
Indeed, in the press release, Doran reiterates the unions work to secure permanent posts in the midst of the health sector’s “staffing crisis”.
This commitment marks a long line of successful campaigns for INMO. In February the union successfully persuaded the government to increase the wage paid to fourth-year nursing and midwifery student interns to €9.48 an hour, 70 percent of the lowest rate of a staff nurse’s wage.
