A LONGING to look after people is a passion shared by Sue Taylor and Natalie Long.

Both pursued nursing as a profession. Sue is a ward manager at the Manorlands hospice in Oxenhope run by the Sue Ryder charity and her colleague, Natalie, is a senior staff nurse.

Listening to the women talk about their rewarding role it is a wonder why the healthcare industry in general appears to be struggling to recruit nurses but, according to Sue, there are a number of reasons.

Sue says the real problem is recruiting registered nurses generally - and that isn't just a problem posed at places such as hospices. "That is a national problem and basically it is too few trained nurses for all the positions that there are available in the country.

"There has been less training places over the years and from what we can see that will only get worse," says Sue.

Pay has also had an impact. "Pay, as we all know with all NHS based staff, has not progressed. Even with the standard of living there has been a stand-still in pay."

But Sue says one of the significant changes affecting recruitment is the proposed scrapping of bursaries for nursing students and other health care undergraduate professions and replacing them with loans.

"I think that will compound the problem and make it worse," says Sue.

The country's ageing workforce is also contributing to the issue. "We are also an ageing workforce and a large proportion of nurses are coming up to retirement and because we have not had younger nurses coming through, we will have a bigger gap."

Re-validation, the new process all nurses and midwives will need to go through to renew their registration with the NMC (The Nursing and Midwifery Council), is prompting many to retire earlier, according to Sue.

An NMC spokesperson said: “We understand there may have been initial concerns that nurses and midwives could leave the register as a result of revalidation but the latest figures for April are clear proof it is not the barrier some feared. More than 90 percent (14,362) of those due to revalidate in April successfully renewed their registration through revalidation and only 1,401 left the register. This is in line with the number of registrants we would normally expect to leave in any given April.”

Listening to Sue and Natalie talk enthusiastically about their roles, it is evident that there are many benefits to becoming a nurse, particularly within a hospice environment.

"It can be very emotional but it is also a great privilege to work with families at a very stressful time in their lives.

"The patient you want to care for to the best of your ability whether it is their last few days, months, people can come in and out, to give them as much quality of life as possible," says Sue.

"It's really rewarding," says Natalie. "And it's nice because we are a really great team here, we do support each other, we are a work family and we provide the best care we can to the patients and their families."

Natalie came into nursing four years ago. Her career hasn't had chance to go full circle but it seems she is back where she belongs having joined the Oxenhope hospice as a health care support assistant when she was 18.

"I left to do my training at 21 and worked in the NHS for a year," explains Natalie.

She returned to the hospice as a senior staff nurse and loves her role. For Sue working in the hospice is the latest chapter in her 36 year career.

Sue previously worked in medical and surgical wards. She also had experience of working in a hospice before joining Manorlands.

"At that stage I thought it would be something I would want to come back to, but I wanted to gain more experience first," says Sue, who came to Manorlands two years ago.

Established over 40 years ago, Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice provides specialist medical care to ease pain and discomfort and offers emotional support to patients and their families.

It has 16 in-patient beds and a day hospice service and provides outpatient clinics in GP surgeries as well as a 24-hour advice service for healthcare professionals, tele-consultation enabling people to speak face-to-face with a doctor or nurse through their TV, family and bereavement support and its team of community nurse specialists can provide care in people's own homes.

Although its care services are free it costs, it costs around £9,000 a day to keep the hospice running and only part of the costs are covered by statutory funds. This year the hospice needs to raise 70 per cent voluntary donations to cover its costs and continue providing its specialist care services.

Last year the community nurse specialists provided over 2795 home visits; almost 200 people attended the day therapy unit and the bereavement team received more than 1380 telephone calls.

In contrast to the pressurised situations nurses often find themselves in within a hospital environment, a hospice offers peace and tranquility... and time.

"It's nice to work in a place where you can spend time with patients and their families," says Natalie.

For more information email sue.taylor@sueryder.org; call 01535 642308 or visit sueryder.org.