Journal of nursing management
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One third of the primary care nursing workforce is aged 50 years and over. Workforce planning is essential if primary care is to ensure that there are appropriate numbers of nurses available to replace the loss of experienced nurses as they approach retirement. ⋯ Effective delivery of the NHS Plan requires a thorough understanding of the composition of the primary care nursing workforce and targets need to be based on accurate and reliable workforce statistics.
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Twelve-hour shifts contribute to flexible patterns of work, but the effects on delivery of direct care and staff fatigue are important topics for deeper examination. ⋯ This study provides nurse managers with important and relevant staff views on the impact of working 12-hour shifts. In particular to those working within a critical care environment and suggests the challenge is to ensure existing systems and practices develop to improve on the less encouraging effects of working 12-hour shifts. It adds an understanding of the senior nurse's view on the positive and negative effects of managing and organizing staff off duty to safely run a department with 12-hour shifts.
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Preceptorship is an essential method of supporting nurse competence, guaranteeing high quality care and increasing job satisfaction. ⋯ The results shed useful light on the educational needs of nurses and provide important clues for the development of preceptorship programmes. The Nurse Competence Scale proved to be a reliable and valid instrument in assessing the competence of recently registered nurses. Implications for nursing management We recommend that management strategies be developed to enhance and support positive learning environments for competence development. We recommend preceptorship programmes based on systematic competence assessments made by nurses themselves, their preceptors and managers.