Video campaign launched to promote nursing associates for care homes

A series of videos promoting the role has been created by workforce development body Skills for Care.

"This is a long-term plan to an issue that’s with us now and is only going to get worse"

Adam Knights

The campaign footage states that a “new approach to delivering nursing care” is needed in the adult social care sector due to rapidly rising demand.

“People are living longer and the demand and complexity of care is increasing,” it said.

“We need a new approach to delivering nursing care; one that presents new opportunities, breaks down barriers and provides a modern system in which we can grow together and ultimately improve the quality of care.

“The new nursing associate role is designed with this in mind – to help develop and integrate nursing skills, directing the social care sector to a more sustainable future.”

The campaign makes clear that the nursing associates should not be used as a substitute for registered nurses.

“By employing a nursing associate, it will free up the time of a registered nurse to focus on more complex clinical duties, allowing them to work at the upper limits of their role, giving opportunities to rethink staffing and workforce planning,” a narrator states in one of the videos.

Allowing existing care staff to broaden their skills and progress in their careers was also highlighted in the footage as a key benefit of the nursing associate programme.

Lincolnshire was one of the areas to introduce the nursing associate role into an adult social care setting and the campaign features testimonials from people involved in the initiative.

A total of three registered nursing associates are now working across care homes in the county and a further seven apprentice nursing associates are in training.

Speaking in one of the videos, Adam Knights, managing director of Lincolnshire social care provider Knights Care, highlighted the difficulties facing the sector around registered nurse recruitment.

“We need a new approach to delivering nursing care"

Video

He said: “If you are a nursing home, we all know the issues with nurses, this is a long-term plan to an issue that’s with us now and is only going to get worse, so you are forward thinking and you are planning for the future.”

Meanwhile, Emily Gillott talks in one of the films about how she used that route to become a registered nursing associate at Drovers Call Care Home in Gainsborough.

She explained how taking on the role had made her a more reflective practitioner and had expanded her career prospects.

A report published in August by Skills for Care showed that the number of registered nurses employed in adult social care had plummeted 20% in the past six years and was increasingly relying on nursing assistants.

The shortages have forced some nursing homes to shut or remodel as residential homes by removing registered nurse provision, as reported by Nursing Times. 

Skills for Care is aiming to use the films to support the sector in increasing the number of nursing associates in training and employment.