Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is aiming to recruit 140 nurses to strengthen numbers in an aim to further improve the quality of care provided to patients and reduce expensive agency costs.

Registered nurses are being sought across King’s Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals, with a particular focus on the Emergency Care and Medicine Division, including geriatrics, gastroenterology, respiratory and the Emergency Admissions Unit.

Throughout the country hospitals are finding nurse recruitment a challenge due to a reduction in overall numbers of undergraduates entering nurse training, coupled with a national drive to support safe registered nurse staffing levels across wards and departments.

Susan Bowler, Executive Director for Nursing and Quality at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, said: “High-quality patient care is our primary aim and this recruitment campaign will allow us to increase the number of permanent nurses working within the Trust, while maintaining safe staffing levels.

“Being able to employ nurses on permanent contracts allows us to train and develop our staff. We want our nurses to be the best they can be and that’s why we offer supportive management and a range of training opportunities, as well as a clean and modern environment to work in.

“As a Trust we know the challenges we face, but since the Keogh Review in 2013 our nurses have risen to those challenges and made significant improvements. We are really proud of the close-knit team spirit and the confidence our nurses have in each other to provide the best patient care.”

The Trust’s drive to recruit more nurses also includes looking overseas, with over 50 nurses already joining the Trust from Europe, including Spain, Italy and Romania. All of the nurses recruited from abroad must be registered and possess strong English language skills.

As part of the recruitment drive the Trust will be holding an open day for registered nurses at King’s Mill Hospital on Saturday, 25 April from 10am to 3pm.

Trust staff will be on hand throughout the event, which will be held in the main entrance of the hospital, to speak about the range of opportunities available across the Trust. Interviews for nursing vacancies will be held during the event.

Shantell Miles, Practice Development Matron at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, who is organising the open day, said: “We are looking for nurses who put empathy, compassion, understanding and kindness at the heart of everything they do.

“We have a wide range of opportunities across our hospitals, so if you’re a nurse who wants the support of the team that surrounds you, great training and development opportunities, the time to care for your patients and a good work-life balance, then come along to our open day.”

For further information about the open day, call 01623 622515 extension 3947 or visit www.caretobeproudof.co.uk/open-day

Anyone interested in applying for nursing jobs at Sherwood Forest Hospitals should visit www.caretobeproudof.co.uk