Susan Cottrell our Deputy Head of Nursing, Patient Services within Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service discusses International Nurses Day.

International Nurses Day is on Sunday 12 May. In the lead up to this important day, join us in celebrating the economic power of care and service excellence embodied by our nurses and the transformative impact they have on the future of nursing in Scotland.

In today’s piece from our colleague Susan Cottrell, Deputy Head of Nursing at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), we’re highlighting how NSS invests in the future of nurses in Scotland through providing undergraduate learning experiences.

Susan is currently leading the implementation of an undergraduate practice learning experience across four SNBTS sites in Scotland.

Susan said: “My role supports driving the economic power of care across our services in SNBTS. My role is ideally placed to strategically influence investment in our current and future nursing colleagues”

These undergraduate learning experiences are implemented in partnership and collaboration with higher education institutes, NHS Education Scotland, NHSScotland boards, SNBTS senior nurses and other multidisciplinary colleagues.

The undergraduate learning experiences have helped to establish the visibility of SNBTS as an employer and provided the opportunity for undergraduate adult health nurses to learn about the diverse nursing roles across SNBTS key services.

Feedback from undergraduate nurses who have completed a placement with SNBTS has been positive:

“SNBTS offers amazing practice supervisors and assessors. They actively communicate between them that allows the students an amazing learning opportunity within different areas. Such as: Donor services, Clinical Apheresis Unit, Transfusion Team, and Tissues, Cells and Advanced Therapeutics. As a result, I’ve learned of different paths to grow as a nurse and develop new skills and knowledge.”

Susan added: “I’m passionate about values-based healthcare and person-centred learning which is at the heart of everything I do. I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to have an amazing nursing career working for the NHS, and latterly within SNBTS, where I feel valued as a nurse.”

“Attracting nurses to SNBTS is a key focus of the SNBTS nursing workforce plan. By strengthening and investing in our current and future workforce, nurses will feel valued and respected, as well as working in a healthcare environment which is diverse, fair, inclusive and offers equal opportunities.”

Susan concluded: “Ultimately, providing a nursing workforce which is sustainable and skilled is essential in order to deliver high quality public services to support the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland.”

To learn more about the work SNBTS teams deliver, take a look at our overview of services detailed on the NSS website and find out more on the Scotblood website.

#IND2024 #OurNursesOurFuture