71 pct of student nurses consider leaving Ireland after graduation: survey

DUBLIN, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A survey released on Wednesday showed that 71 percent of the student nurses consider leaving Ireland after their graduation due to low payment and poor working conditions.

The survey, published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization (INMO) during a conference being held in the country's southern city of Cork, said 57 percent of the students have already been approached by overseas recruitment companies.

Almost four in every five people surveyed said that pay rise, as well as improvements in staffing and working conditions, are required to retain nurses and midwives in the public sector, said the survey.

Phil Ni Sheaghdha, General Secretary of INMO, said that the survey suggested that the recent incentive taken by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to recruit and retain nurses in the public sector is not working.

To address the serious shortage of nurses in public hospitals, the HSE, a government body responsible for all public health services in Ireland, has recently promised to offer permanent jobs for all eligible graduate nurses.

Ni Sheaghdha said that staffing levels in nursing are over 2,000 below where they were in 2007 before the crisis, and many new nurses, who took up positions after graduation last year, left very quickly.

She called on the government to address the problems faced by the nurses immediately.

She said during the three-day INMO conference in Cork, delegates will debate a motion to deliver an ultimatum to the government, threatening to go on strikes if their demand for better pay is not met.

The average monthly salary of a registered nurse in Ireland is around 2,500 euros (about 3,000 U.S. dollars). Enditem