By Lucy Ashton
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has today said that the new Health Secretary Humza Yousaf must work with health boards to secure employment for student nurses denied positions as Paediatric Nurses.
His call comes after graduates wrote to party leaders to warn that despite completing 2,300 hours of unpaid work in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, over a third of the latest university cohort at Glasgow Caledonian find themselves without a job.
Mr Rennie said: “Student nurses were called to action to aid staff on the frontline. They put in thousands of hours of work to keep the people of Scotland safe and healthy in our hour of need.
“It’s disgraceful that they’re being shown the door before their formal career has even begun. Scotland’s NHS faces years of work rebuilding from the pandemic. We ought to be securing the future of the health service, not watching talented staff look abroad for opportunities.
“The new Health Secretary must work with health boards to secure employment for all of those who worked so hard to help us get through the pandemic.”
Willie Rennie is one of these politicians who has spent his life looking for a bandwagon to jump on.
But could this be true.
Be an interesting statistic to learn how many student nurses have been taken on by the NHS in our area.
I think our council leader may be on the Health Board and maybe he could advise.
And maybe he could advise too if we have any nurse shortages.
He can get back to planting trees after that.