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Student Nursing Intake Planning (SNIP) 2002
The Student Nurse Intake Planning (SNIP) exercise is carried
out on an annual basis. For several years it has offered the
Scottish Executive guidance on the number of student nurses
and midwives required across NHSScotland. This is based on
5-year forecasts from NHS Trusts, Health Boards, private hospitals
and education providers.
As the SNIP exercise is conducted on an annual basis it allows
for adjustments to be made, therefore any increase/ decrease
in demand for nurses and midwives across NHSScotland will
be reflected in the number of places agreed year on year.
Earlier this year at the NT Live event, the Minister for Health
and Community Care announced that the SNIP 2002 recommendations
would be met in full this year (2003/04). SNIP 2002 recommends
an additional 525 student nurse places taking the total recommended
intake number to 3,935. This will see unprecedented numbers
of nurses and midwives in training.
As part of the large increase in the recommended intake, a
number of alternative paths to nurse training have been approved.
Concerns on the capacity to deal with the number of clinical
placements have also influenced the development of alternative
training routes. The additional 525 places can be broken down
as follows:
- 100 traditional students, i.e. 3-year Higher Educational
Institution (HEIs) based pre-registration students, have
been allocated across the seven contracted universities.
- 180 Healthcare students as developed by Facing the Future
sub-group chaired by Rosslyn Crockett, have been funded
and Trusts are currently recruiting to these places. The
majority of the HNCs will begin this autumn although some
have sought permission to postpone until February 2004.
All 180 must begin in academic year 2003/04, in order to
have a chance of completing the pre-registration programme
in 2006/07.
- 45 Open University students will be commencing early in
2004 in remote and rural areas in Highland, Orkney, Shetland
and Argyll. The Open University is working with the normal
HEI provider in each of these areas. This is a 4-year work-based
programme, and is currently being adapted and approved by
NES for Scotland.
- 200 additional Healthcare students as a one-off cohort
undertaking the HNC on a part-time basis.
To support clinical placements for these additional places,
100 Practice Educator posts will be established. These will
be funded on a tripartite basis from the Executive, Higher
Educational Institutions as well as NHS Employers. It is
anticipated that these posts will begin to come on stream
in February 2004.
The latest figures from ISD Scotland (2002) indicate that
we are on track to achieving the recruitment target to bring
12,000 nurses and Midwives into the NHS by 2007. With the
measures taken to increase student numbers as well as a
range of other measures designed to build capacity, it is
anticipated that this target will be surpassed as these
initiatives are realised.
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