Canterbury nursing shortage.

With the numbers of nursing vacancies at Canterbury hospitals skyrocketing over the last two years, particularly over the last few months--currently 211 vacancies and affecting most areas--Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has launched a campaign to boost nursing numbers.

The "I came back to nursing" campaign is targeting registered and enrolled nurses (ENs), who have already worked in the profession, to encourage them to help fill workforce gaps. Executive director of nursing Mary Gordon said the campaign was part of an ongoing recruitment strategy at the DHB which, every six months, seeks 50 graduate nurses to work across its hospitals, as well as recruiting overseas.

In April, when there were 182 nurse vacancies, Gordon warned elective surgery might have to be cut if the situation worsened. Since then, beds have been closed through tack of staff, operations have been rescheduled and staff nurses have been doing many extra shifts and more overtime.

Christchurch Hospital general manager Mark Leggett said CDHB was reviewing the use of health care assistants and ENs as a possible way to ease the burden on registered nurses.

Meanwhile, those wanting to come back into nursing could choose to work flexible hours or work a variety of full- or half-day shifts. Those who have not nursed for less than five years could begin work as soon as the Nursing Council had issued them an annual practising certificate, white those who had been out of nursing for more than five years would need to do a competency assessment programme through the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology.