Careers on offer as West Suffolk Hospital runs market stall

September 10, 2001

Staff from the West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust will run a stall at Bury St Edmunds market on Wednesday 26th September to encourage people to join the NHS.

Instead of a working day at the West Suffolk Hospital caring for patients, staff will be in a very different environment performing an unusual but vital role.  The staff, from various departments at the Hospital, will give out information and advice to the public about the wide range of jobs available in the NHS. Their aim is to inform people about the many different roles in healthcare and to promote working in the NHS as a rewarding and worthwhile career.

The stall will be located outside of Next, and will be manned from 10am until 4pm.  This forms part of the National Job Shop Initiative, an NHS-wide event aimed at attracting new recruits to careers in health and raising awareness of improved working conditions in the NHS.  On Thursday 4^th October a job shop will be held in the main entrance of the West Suffolk Hospital, where details of all current vacancies at the Trust will be available.

“The NHS is the largest and one of the most important organisations in the country, and few professions can offer the level of variety and job satisfaction that working in healthcare provides”, said Jan Bloomfield, Director of Human Resources at the Trust.  “We want to highlight the benefits of working for the NHS and encourage local people to think about a career at the West Suffolk Hospital.”

“The best care for patients is provided by a happy and fulfilled workforce. To achieve this we are doing all we can to create an environment in which every member of our staff feels that their voice is listened to and their contribution appreciated.”

“Flexible working hours, personal training and development programmes, a Career Break scheme, a future on-site nursery and childcare vouchers are just some of the initiatives introduced by the Trust to improve the working lives of staff.  Developing work/life balance employment policies and flexible working patterns play an important role in successful recruitment and retention.”

One of the biggest challenges facing many people today is how to manage the work/life balance. The Trust has been looking at ways to make it easier for staff to achieve a better balance and a major initiative is the introduction of a Return to Practice Course for nurses that provides the retraining, support and flexible hours necessary to enable people to return to the profession.

The courses run so far have resulted in over 30 nurses returning to full or part-time work at the Trust. The success has been put down to offering returnees a course that combines theory with practical experience, a choice of clinical placement, payment for clinical time and no charge for the course.

“The Trust Board has pledged its commitment to improving the working lives of our staff and to developing an environment in which staff feel valued, supported and involved in the provision of high-quality patient care,” said Johanna Finn, Chief Executive of the Trust.