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Case study: Student nursesOrganising assistant Debbie Smith spells out the work done to recruit student nurses in the Eastern region We meet student nurses at university inductions to recruit and educate them on the benefits of being a member and produce a regional newsletter provides nursing information, advice, updates and campaign news. We also focus on organising student nurse representatives at each university to act as contacts and attend our regional forum and annual events. We do offer incentives to join, such as a free nursing dictionary, discounted subscription to the Nursing Times or a ladybird stress toy - but the main focus is message we give about the benefits of being in UNISON. Student nurse reps organise publicity for university notice boards to raise our profile. This includes distbributing the Eastern regional student nurse newsletter to other members to publicise successes and share good practice and achievements, such as where we have helped a student nurse stay on the course despite difficulties. Students can join in a variety of ways. While we prefer them to pay by direct debit for convenience, most pay by cash, cheque, debit credit or credit card. We send a letter to cash members individually every April as a reminder to renew their membership. With third-year students, it's essential to keep in contact to make sure they stay as members when they transfer from the discounted rate into full membership upon qualification. We send out individual letters and application forms with a regionally produced leaflet encouraging them to become full members. One great retention tool is the nursing careers opportunities forum held in Hatfield and we support this twice a year. It's organised the workforce development organisation to bring student nurses training together with prospective employers and organisations like ourselves. It's a great way of coming into contact with final year students. Around 150 student nurses attend, and there are about 25 stalls, mostly belonging to employers. We put together recruitment and information packs emphasising the importance of retaining union membership. We also promote national campaigns - most are already aware of our 'Pay Not Poverty' campaign to get rid of the bursary and get student nurses back onto a salary - and we explain how UNISON is key in negotiating around Agenda for Change. We also try to persuade recruits to become reps or contacts in the new workplace. This helps UNISON increase our representation with additional contacts and stewards. It's also important to keep local branches advised of student nurse recruitment events. Several nursing branch reps help out at inductions and branches can keep an eye out for members when they're in the workplace. We let them know if anyone is interested in becoming a rep, so they can be contacted by they branch as soon as they join the hospital. Branch reps also take part in trust inductions for new members of staff, providing another way to link new nurse members to local branches and what's going on. We're holding our third annual student nurse reps weekend at Croyde Bay this May. Students come to share information and tell us about the challenges they face. We show how UNISON can offer the scope and opportunities to work on what we can all do to improve things. The aim is to get them more involved with the union and hopefully go on to become active full-time reps. Last year, we recruited around 950 students and 45 student nurse representatives. The next challenge is to get in contact with our 2003 student nurse members in the region before they qualify in 2006. |
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