5,000 signatures reached
To: Humza Yousaf - Health and Social Care minister
Pay award for District Nurses
We want Scottish Government to recognise the specialist role of the district nurse and match the pay banding to that of our equals in a hospital setting.
Currently DNSs are awarded a band 6 whereas Senior charge nurses in hospital settings are awarded band 7.
District nurses hold a specialist practitioner qualification at MSc post graduate level and paid the same as hospital band 6 charge nurses who are not required to have post graduate qualifications.
We would also like to match the pay scale of the Health visitors who hold a similar level of specialist qualification and awarded band 7.
Why is this important?
District nurses have 24 hour responsibility for caseload of patients, most of the time over 100 patients, DN are first line mangers to teams of community nursing staff.
District nursing is losing experienced nurses to hospital environments due to the lack of professional recognition and associated pay scale. As DN service transforms to meet the needs of the population, the care DN provide is complex and unlike hospitals, our wards are never closed, we are the wards without walls. Any investment in District nursing is to protect admission to acute care and not as a specialist service in its own right. With money invested in prevention admission , enhanced community care and acute frailty teams. District nurses were previously thought of as pillars of the community, supporting families for centuries. Now they themselves are requiring to be supported
The people of Scotland deserve to have highly specialised community nurses in the heart of their community; improving health outcomes, supporting self care and providing end of life care at home.
Please give the DISTRICT NURSES the professional recognition and the financial equality of hospital based nursing staff in Scotland
